MARK LEDUC: A New Play By Raymond Helkio
22 Jul 2019.  -

It's been ten years since the sudden death of Mark Leduc who passed away on July 22, 2009. A one-time juvenile delinquent, Mark took his fans and the media by surprise by winning a silver medal in boxing at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. After a short but successful professional career winning him five of six matches, Mark announced his retirement from sport and stunned everyone by coming out as gay, a move that would forever alter the course of his life. 

Based on a true story, LEDUC is a vivid portrait of Mark’s journey from the solitude of living in a 6x8’ prison cell, through boxing fame, to his last breaths alone in a 6x8’ men’s bathhouse sauna. Written by Raymond Helkio, a writer who had lived with Mark for almost a decade during his Olympic rise through to his retirement and coming out. 

This is the story of Mark Leduc’s journey from ex-con to gay icon, and the death of Canada’s silver-medal sweetheart. Based on a true story. LEDUC is available now in paperback https://amzn.to/2XWFORq and is being workshopped for future performances in Toronto.

LEDUC Trailer: 
 

Excerpt from the play LEDUC, written by Raymond Helkio (2019)
Mark picks up the egg timer from the stool, winds it, and sets it back down. Tick, tick, tick...

AUDIO
Years ago, long before he captured a silver medal for Canada at the '92 Barcelona Olympics, Mark Leduc's mother came all the way from England to visit him at Collins Bay Penitentiary. The visit was cut off after only 10 minutes because an inmate had been stabbed. Tragically, she'll be making the trip from England again. But this time to say goodbye to her son, who died on Wednesday night.

MARK
Three minutes. A lot can happen in that time. It's how long it takes for water to boil or to make some toast. Listen to a song. Have an orgasm, fall in love. It’s also how long a round of boxing is. Three minutes. Apollo taught me that a lot can happen in three minutes, but as I found out, that's not always a good thing. Three minutes is also how long it takes to pick a lock. Which, if you didn't know already know, is one of the many skills that landed me in here. But will I or won’t I, that's the question on everyone’s mind isn't it? Of course, I'll get out of prison. I’ll go to the Olympics. I’ll even turn pro and then come out of the closet, all in more or less that order but first, to understand how I’ll get out of here, you have to know how I got in. (Pause.)

They say that when kids run away from home they are either running away from something or running to it. I’m still not sure if I was running away from my dad but the third time the cops came to the house, well that was it for him. The moment they left he full-on snapped. He grabbed me by the back of my neck and tossed me off the porch without a word. I was pretty tough for twelve-year-old, so I got up as if nothin' happened and walked away, matching his silence with mine. That was the last time I saw him.

The following year I celebrated my thirteenth birthday in prison and nobody came to visit. I mean, my sister said mom flew to Toronto to see me, but that week we were on lockdown on account of a fight that broke out on another block. They don’t tell you nothin’ during a lockdown, so maybe she tried.

-END of EXCERPT-