In June 2021, Matchstick was thrilled to take part in Eastern Front Theatre’s 2021 Stages Theatre Festival with a reading of David French’s Leaving Home.

Jacob Mercer – Sébastien Labelle
Mary Mercer – Shelley Thompson
Ben Mercer – Lou Campbell
Bill Mercer – Sam Vigneault
Minnie Jackson – Sharleen Kalayil
Kathy Jackson – Marlee Sampson
Harold – Dan Bray

Set in the late 1950’s, Leaving Home tells the story of a Newfoundland family that has emigrated to Toronto and is struggling to redefine itself. ⁣
The plot begins on the eve of Bill Mercer and Kathy Jackson’s wedding, a union that is the result of the teenage couple getting pregnant. When the Mercers and Jacksons get together for a drink before the rehearsal dinner, the situation quickly dissolves into a combative argument. Meanwhile, Bill’s older brother Ben plans to leave the Mercer home and move in with the newlyweds in order to gain some much desired independence. He wants to be free of his parents, particularly his father Jacob, who regularly belittles Ben for not living up to his toxic standards. More withdrawn than his younger brother and questioning his conception of masculinity, Ben is the heart of French’s drama; the character, like the play, has newfound relevance in light of contemporary understandings of self-determinism and identity. French’s personal depiction of the fraught relationship between parents and their children, caught between opposing worlds of understanding, continues to speak to what it means to be part of a family.