Leaving Home (2024)

a play by David French

About the Production

Matchstick Theatre presented David French’s landmark Canadian drama Leaving Home in Halifax, March 20th-24th and 27th-31st, 2024.

Set in 1950s Toronto on the eve of a shotgun wedding, Leaving Home is a play about love, loss, and intergenerational conflict. Fifty years after its legendary debut, David French’s moving and personal depiction of the fraught relationship between parents and their children continues to speak to what it means to be part of a family.

Staged in the round for a limited audience, our production featured an all-star local cast, award-winning designers, and the return of Matchstick’s core team. Held at Breaking Circus’ beautiful venue (2164 Barrington Street) for this rare opportunity to experience one of Canada’s greatest dramas.

Poster Design by Sean Skerry (Classic Graphic Co)
Photography by Stoo Metz (Stoo Metz Photography)

Leaving Home was nominated for nine Theatre Nova Scotia Robert Merritt awards in 2025 and won Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction.

The team

Mary Mercer  –  Shelley Thompson

Ben Mercer  –  Lou Campbell

Bill Mercer  –  Sam Vigneault

Jacob Mercer  –  Hugh Thompson

Kathy Jackson  –  Abby Weisbrot

Minnie Jackson  –  Sharleen Kalayil

Harold  –  Sébastien Labelle

 

Director  –  Jake Planinc

Production Stage Manager  –  Chelsea Dickie

House Manager  –  Alex Mills

 

Lighting Designer  –  Alison Crosby

Sound Designer  –  Jordan Palmer

Set Designer  –  Wesley Babcock

Costume Designer  –  Kaelen MacDonald

 

Accent Coach  –  Sherry Smith

Dance Coach  –  Jade Douris-O’Hara

 

Poster Design by Classic Graphic Co

some moments

Recognition

2025 Merritt Award Winner  –  Outstanding Production, 2025
2025 Merritt Award Winner  –  Outstanding Direction,  Jake Planinc
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Outstanding Costume Design,  Kaelen MacDonald
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Outstanding Set Design,  Wesley Babcock
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Oustanding Performance by an Ensemble
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role,  Shelley Thompson
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role,  Hugh Thompson
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role,  Sharleen Kalayil
2025 Merritt Award Nominee  –  Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role,  Sebastien Labelle

 

About

David French

David French was one of Canada’s most significant playwrights. He is best known for his Mercer cycle, a critically acclaimed series of plays about a family, like his own, who emigrated from Newfoundland to Toronto. The Mercer plays include Leaving Home, a Canadian classic that has been produced from coast to coast and internationally; Of the Fields, Lately, which won the Chalmers Award and was produced on Broadway; Salt-Water Moon, a romantic two-hander that has been produced hundreds of times since it premiered; as well as Soldier’s Heart, and 1949. French’s other plays include the popular backstage comedy Jitters and the memory play That Summer. David was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001; his citation reads, in part: “He is one of the finest dramatists to successfully present Canadian concerns and issues on stage. His well-known characters, the Mercers, have become touchstones in Canadian theatre.”

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