Leaving Home - History

History

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. The rest is history."

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."