Composers and their stage works 



Leaving Home

David French

Drama 2 Acts - Toronto 1972

Billy Mercer, youngest and favourite son of Jacob Mercer, a Toronto working man, is on the point of marrying his pregnant girlfriend, Kathy Jackson, mainly to escape the odium facing unmarried parents in the provincial moral atmosphere of fifties Canada.

Jacob is unaware that his eldest son, Ben, with whom he has never got on, will be leaving home to live with Billy and Kathy, in order to escape Jacob's foul temper and brittle displays of pride. As Kathy's mother, Minnie, and her boyfriend, Harold, arrive at the Mercer's home for a wedding eve celebration, Kathy informs Billy that she has miscarried, leaving him free to break off the wedding. Billy considers his course of action as the celebration turns into a serious drinking spree, during which Jacob constantly jibes at Ben, whom he accuses of being ashamed of his origins.

In exasperation with Jacob's bullying, his long suffering wife, Mary, reveals that without Ben's recent financial contributions, made to her in secret, the family would long have gone bankrupt, and that Ben, too, is leaving home.
Although Jacob, stunned at the prospect of losing both his sons, tries to talk Ben into staying, Mary realizes that it is time for both boys to make their own way. Billy presses on with his marriage, Ben departs, and Mary is left alone with Jacob.

Cast

Mary Mercer
Ben Mercer
Billy Mercer
Jacob Mercer
Kathy Jackson
Minnie Jackson
Harold