Ned Dickens (born 1959 in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

) is a Canadian playwright. He authored 16 plays, 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 In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris (mythology), Paris of Troy took Helen of Troy, Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of th ...

Life

Dickens was born in 1959 in

and raised in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. His father was a teacher who taught in boarding schools. For 10 years, he worked in architecture. He was the director for the Kensington Youth Theatre and Employment Skills program in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, using theatre as a training tool for street youth. Dickens lives in Kingston and has three children.

Playwriting career

In 1994, Dickens turned to playwriting from acting when he developed advanced

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

. He was commissioned by Die In Debt Theatre to write a new version of

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

's ''

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby ...

'' . After writing the piece and winning a

Dora Award The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped estab ...

, Dickens wanted to further explore the story of

Jocasta In Greek mythology, Jocasta (), also rendered Iocaste ( grc, Ἰοκάστη ) and also known as Epicaste (; ), was a daughter of Menoeceus, a descendant of the Spartoi Echion, and queen consort of Thebes. She was the wife of first Laius, t ...

's mother. He then became fascinated by "the aftermath of Oedipus's downfall." After six years, Dickens had expanded ''Oedipus'' to become a trilogy and decided to "dramatize the entire history of Thebes." In total, the series took 15 years to write. To support himself during this time, Dickens taught public speaking to politicians and worked in construction, injuring his hand in an accident. In May 2009, Dickens's seven-play cycle, ''City of Wine'', debuted at Toronto's

Theatre Passe Muraille Theatre Passe Muraille is a theatre company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Brief history One of Canada's most influential alternative theatres, Theatre Passe Muraille ("theatre beyond walls") was founded in 1968 by director and playwright Jim Gar ...

. The play involved 233 student actors, 172 professional actors, and 110 theatre artists and was produced by Nightswimming, an independent theatre company. In its entirety, the play's running time is 12 hours. Robert Kushman, in the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', described it as a "dizzyingly ambitious feat of producing and a dizzying achievement."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickens, Ned Writers from British Columbia Living people Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 1959 births Writers from Kingston, Ontario 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers