 Theatre; Shaun Davey's work as a professional composer for theatre began in 1977 with Stewart Parker's 'Catchpenny Twist' at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. When 'Catchpenny Twist' was filmed by the BBC in 1977 Davey was commissioned to produce the soundtrack in Dublin. His collaboration with Stewart Parker continued in 1978 with 'Kingdom Come' at The King's Head Theatre, London.
His work with the RSC [Royal Shakespeare company] began in 1987 when he was asked by Trevor Nunn to collaborate on his production of Thomas Heywood's 'Fair Maid of the West'. His scores for the RSC include those for Frank McGuinness's 'Mary and Lizzie' [1990], 'A Winter's Tale' [1992, the first of many collaborations with director Adrian Noble], Richard Nelson's 'Columbus and the Discovery of Japan' [1992], 'The Tempest' [1993], 'King Lear [1993]', 'Romeo and Juliet' [1995], Adrian Mitchell's adaptation of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' [1998-2002] and 'Pericles' [2002]. Davey's other work in the UK includes Sebastian Barry's 'Steward of Christendom' [The Royal Court, 1996], Chekov's 'Three Sisters' [Southampton, 2002], Ibsen's 'Lady from the Sea' [The Almeida, 2003] and 'Skellig' [The Young Vic, 2003] both directed byTrevor Nunn. 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' was produced at both the Yorkshire Playhouse and Liecester Haymarket theatres in 2004.
In Ireland, Davey composed scores for;- Frank McGuinness's translation of Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt' at The Gate Theatre, [1984, the first of many collaboratios with director Patrick Mason]; for The NationalTheatre of Ireland [The Abbey]'The Siver Tassie' [ 1989]; 'The Corsican Brothers' [1991]; 'Observe the Sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme' [1992]; Synge's 'The Well of the Saints'[1993]; Sebastian Barry's 'Fanny Hawke' [1992] and 'The Only True History of Lizzie Finn' [1995]; Tom Murphy's 'She Stoops to Folly' [1997].
In the USA Davey collaborated with Richard Nelson on the musical 'James Joyce's The Dead' [Playwrights Horizons theatre, 1999 and Belasco Theatre, Broadway 2000].This received the New York Critics Award; Davey's score was nominated for a Tony Award.
[1] A Winters Tale, RSC, 1992. [2] Pericles. RSC 2002. [3] Shaun and guitar on location
during filming of 'Twelfth Night'
TV and Film; Shaun Davey's first experience of composing music to picture was for TV commercials in Ireland, 1975-1985. His first TV scores were for the RTE drama series 'The Spike' [1976] and 'The Burke Enigma' [1977] in 1977 he also successfully produced the score for the BBC TV Play for Today version of 'Catchpenny Twist'. However, opportunities in Ireland were rare at this time and, although in 1990 he supplied the music for the Granada TV drama 'Who Bombed Birmingham', it was not until 1995, when Ireland introduced tax incentives for TV and film production, that Davey finally got the chance to work in this field. His credits from this time are;-
'The Hanging Gale', BBC TV mini series [1995]; Shaun Davey received an Ivor Novello award for the score, plus a BAFTA nomination.
'Ballykissangel', BBC TV series; Davey worked on the first three years of the series, receiving a BAFTA nomination for the score plus a TRIC award for best British TVsignature tune.
'Loving', BBC TV film, 1996.
'Twelfth Night', feature film, Fineline, director Trevor Nunn, 1997. Score nominated for an Ivor Novello award.
'Waking Ned Devine', feature film, Fox Searchlight, 1998, director Kirk Jones. Golden Reel Award.
'Kings in Grass Castles', TV mini series, Barron Entertainment, 1998.
'David Copperfield', TV film, Hallmark, director Peter Medak, 1999.
'Tailor of Panama', feature film, Columbia, director John Borman, 2000.
'The Abduction Club', feature film, Pathe, 2001.
Shaun Davey has also supplied the music for explorer-historian Tim Severin's three most recent documentary films; 'The Spice Islands Voyage'; 'In Search of Moby Dick'; and 'In Search of Robinson Crusoe'.
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