Ned Dickens (born 1959 in British Columbia) is a Canadian playwright. He authored 16 plays, ^[1] including the City of Wine series, a seven-play cycle which "traces the rise and fall of the ancient city of Thebes, from its founding by Cadmus and Harmonia to its demise at the siege of Troy." ^[2]

Life

Dickens was born in 1959 ^[3] in British Columbia and raised in Ontario. ^[4] His father was a teacher who taught in boarding schools. ^[4]

For 10 years, he worked in architecture. ^[1] He was the director for the Kensington Youth Theatre and Employment Skills program in Toronto, using theatre as a training tool for street youth. ^[1]

Dickens lives in Kingston and has three children. ^[4]

Playwriting career

In 1994, Dickens turned to playwriting from acting when he developed advanced glaucoma. ^[4] He was commissioned by Die In Debt Theatre to write a new version of Seneca's Oedipus . ^[2] After writing the piece and winning a Dora Award, Dickens wanted to further explore the story of Jocasta, Oedipus's mother. He then became fascinated by "the aftermath of Oedipus's downfall." ^[4] After six years, Dickens had expanded Oedipus to become a trilogy and decided to "dramatize the entire history of Thebes." ^[4] In total, the series took 15 years to write. ^[5] To support himself during this time, Dickens taught public speaking to politicians and worked in construction, injuring his hand in an accident. ^[5]

In May 2009, Dickens's seven-play cycle, City of Wine, debuted at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille. ^{[6] [7]} The play involved 233 student actors, 172 professional actors, and 110 theatre artists ^[6] and was produced by Nightswimming, an independent theatre company. ^[5] In its entirety, the play's running time is 12 hours. Robert Kushman, in the National Post, described it as a "dizzyingly ambitious feat of producing and a dizzying achievement." ^[6]

References