Richard Davey was in his forties when he arrived in Tasmania, bringing his infectious creative energy and rich experience as a travelling performer, director and playwright. The works he wrote and directed while at the helm of Hobart’s Zootango Theatre Company included Hallelujah Lady Jane (1984), about Lady Jane Franklin, and a stage adaptation Hook’s Mountain (1986), by Tasmanian novelist James McQueen.
Perhaps the most ambitious work of Davey’s career was A Bright and Crimson Flower (1995), capturing the experience of Australian prisoners of war in Singapore, Burma, and Changi. The large-scale production toured the country to great acclaim.
The Ship that Never Was, a long-running play about convicts who sailed a purloined vessel from Macquarie Harbour to a short-lived freedom in Chile, has entertained thousands of visitors in the west coast town of Strahan since it launched in January 1994. Davey’s research and non-fiction writing on the Sarah Island penal settlement has contributed to a broader rethinking of Tasmania’s convict history.
