Leaving Home (play)

Leaving Home is a drama in two acts by Canadian playwright David French.

"The work is the first presented of what has come to be known as the Mercer Plays (Of the Fields, Lately , Salt-Water Moon , 1949, Soldier's Heart) and was responsible not only for introducing a unique Canadian voice to the world, but also for proving that Canadian playwrights could write plays on Canadian subjects and people would flock to see them."

The play premiered at the Tarragon Theatre, May 16, 1972, directed by Bill Glassco. Credits included set by Dan Yarhi and Stephen Katz, costumes by Vicky Manthorpe and featuring actors Maureen Fitzgerald, Frank Moore, Mel Tuck, Sean Sullivan, Lynne Griffin, Liza Creighton and Les First written as a television play, French offered the work to Glassco after seeing his production of David Freeman's Creeps. French describes the experience: "I asked him to read my play. He did. He called me and he sat there with the script in his lap. 'I like your script,' he grinned, 'but I don't think you've realized its full potential.'" French then grabbed his script and tore out on the street, calling Glassco every profanity imaginable. "Imagine my nerve. Thankfully, he chased me down the road and made me come back."

Leaving Home was a success in 1972, with its theme of fighting for identity in a troubled home resonating with audiences. "It's very autobiographical," French confesses. "I mean, I'm Ben in the play and yes it was cathartic writing my own story. But not everything in that play is true, of course."

French concedes he wrote the play because he loved his dad and that love needed some form of public expression. "I'm really all the characters in my plays, male and female but with my dad it was something serious. As an adolescent, we had a troubled relationship and that was my fault as much as his."

French felt that in some ways, writing Leaving Home did his dad an injustice. "Well, it was just one picture of him. That's all. You have to put all the pictures together."

The play focuses on the Mercer family, and is part of French's series of plays that revolve around that family, including Salt Water Moon, 1949, Of The Fields, Lately, and Soldier's Heart. In Leaving Home, the Mercer family is in the throes of preparations for their youngest son's (Bill) wedding to a young lady (Kathy) he has gotten pregnant. As they sat down for dinner the night of the wedding rehearsal, things erupt when Ben, the elder son, reveals he is moving out as well. Minnie, Kathy's mother, arrives and throws a wrench into the proceedings, bringing up the relationship she once shared with Jacob. When it's revealed that Kathy has had a miscarriage, the teens are left to choose whether or not they will continue with their wedding plans.

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Wikipedia