Oedipus Complex
Why one man spent 15 years reinventing the big, fat Greek history of Thebes By Alexandra Shimo
Ned Dickens’s all-consuming passion would have made Sophocles proud. After staging a gritty, Dora Award–winning version of Oedipus under the Gardiner Expressway in 1994, the Kingston-based playwright began work on another (then another, and another) play inspired by the ancient city of Thebes, from its beginning to its collapse, while earning a living as a drama teacher, stonemason and children’s author. This month, City of Wine—the final 14-hour, seven-part cycle—is being staged for the first time in its entirety by a Canada-wide collection of theatre schools.
You’ve spent the past 15 years immersed in Thebes. Did you ever feel like giving up? Personally, I needed to take on something really big and finish it. Some people climb mountains. I did this.
You’ve said that Oedipus was a great leader. Given his whole “slept with my mom, killed my dad” deal, people often think otherwise. Why the love? Well, he didn’t go, “Hey, you’re my mom; I’m going to be really perverse and sleep with you.” He heard the prophecy and did everything in his power to avoid it.
You started your theatre career onstage. Why the move from acting to writing? I was diagnosed with glaucoma 15 years ago. I tried drug therapies and laser surgery, unsuccessfully. The doctors told me I was going blind; my eyesight is holding for now, but they’re not sure what’s going to happen. Anyhow, if you’re unemployed and find something you’re good at it, you go for it.
Oedipus has to cope with his own moral and physical blindness. Did that draw you to him, given your worries about losing your eyesight? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why the director, Sarah Stanley, asked me to write it. I used what I’d experienced and tried to borrow from it, to shape and distort it to fit the character.
Not to beat a dead horse, but you spent a decade and a half on Oedipus’ family history. I have to ask: were you working through some unresolved parental issues of your own? My parents were pretty remarkable people, but if you ever find someone without unresolved parental issues, I’d love to meet them.
City of Wine flows at Theatre Passe Muraille from May 5 to 9. $12–$20; entire cycle $60–$100. 16 Ryerson Ave., 416-504-7529, www.passemuraille.on.ca.
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