Barry Dickins

Barry Dickins (6 November 1949 – 13 July 2026) wore many hats: Australian author, artist, actor, educator, and journalist. He is most recognised for his historical plays and his vivid recollections of a working-class Melbourne upbringing. His standout work is the award-winning stage play *Remember Ronald Ryan*, which dramatises the life and death of Ronald Ryan, the last person executed in Australia. Dickins also penned dramas and comedies about other controversial figures, including poet Sylvia Plath, opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland, criminal Squizzy Taylor, actor Frank Thring, playwright Oscar Wilde, and artist Brett Whiteley. His writing was largely for Australia’s independent theatre scene, with frequent collaborations at La Mama Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, The Pram Factory, Griffin Theatre Company, fortyfivedownstairs, and St Martin Youth Theatre.

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir on 6 November 1949, Dickins left school early and spent five years working in a North Melbourne factory, then as a set-painter for Channel 7 television programs. Through La Mama Theatre, his first play—a translation of Ibsen’s *Ghosts*—was staged in 1974. He went on to write over 50 plays, plus numerous short stories, biographies, opinion pieces, essays, and children’s books. *Remember Ronald Ryan* won the 1995 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. For 41 years, he taught English and creative writing at Melbourne schools including Scotch College, Melbourne Grammar, and West Preston Primary School. His classroom experiences became the basis for his 2013 memoir, *Lessons in Humility: 40 years of teaching*.

Dickins also acted on stage and screen. His first acting role was in Barry Oakley’s *The Ship’s Whistles* (1978) at the Pram Factory Front Theatre, directed by Paul Hampton. Subsequent film appearances included Paul Cox’s *Man of Flowers* (1983), James Clayden’s *With Time to Kill* (1987), Brian McKenzie’s *With Love to the Person Next to Me* (1987), Paul Cox’s *The Gift* (1988) and *Golden Braid* (1990, which he co-wrote), Brian McKenzie’s *People Who Still Use Milk Bottles* (1990), Frank Howson’s *Flynn* (1993), and Elise McCredie’s *Strange Fits of Passion* (1999). He had guest roles on the TV shows *Winners* (1985) and *Wedlocked* (1995). In 1985, he appeared in a revival of Graeme Blundell’s *Balmain Boys Don’t Cry* (renamed *The Balmain Boys*) at Kinsela’s Cabaret Theatre in Darlinghurst, New South Wales. His final stage performance was a dramatic reading of the monologue *Ryan*, a continuation of his earlier work, at a Q&A event at Melbourne bookshop Collected Works.

In 2009, he published the memoir *Unparalleled Sorrow*, covering his career and battle with depression. In 2015, Black Pepper Publishing released *A Line Drawing of My Father*, a memoir about his father Len Dickins, a WWII veteran and commercial printer, which also paints a portrait of Melbourne’s working-class northern suburbs. That same year, Dickins became a Writer-in-Residence and Creative Writing lecturer at Victoria University in Footscray, Melbourne. He held the role for less than 12 months before being unexpectedly let go by campus coordinators during the Christmas break.

In June 2017, Dickins was found guilty of making a false police report after claiming officers had conducted an improper strip search on Lygon Street. The full circumstances, according to Dickins, appear not to be available, and news details are brief. He received a 12-month good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded. His then-employer, *The Sunday Age*, was later found to have breached Australian Press Council principles over its publication of Dickins’ account of the alleged police misconduct.

Dickins died on 13 July 2026 at age 76.