Ned Dickens

In May 2009, Dickens's seven-play cycle, City of Wine, debuted at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille. 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, described it as a "dizzyingly ambitious feat of producing and a dizzying achievement."

In 1994, Dickens turned to playwriting from acting when he developed advanced glaucoma. He was commissioned to write a new version of Seneca's Oedipus. 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." 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.

Ned Dickens (born 1959 in British Columbia) 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."

Dickens was born in 1959 in British Columbia and raised in Ontario. His father was a teacher who taught in boarding schools.