Author's note: 'Up the Ladder is my first play, originally written in 1989. This play evolved from my memories as a kid going to the Brisband Royal Show (EKKA) held in August each year. Down sideshow alley I would wander to my favorite show, the boxing tents, where a drum was beaten and a bell rang to draw the customers, where boxers stood on a high platform in gowns and boots and the spruiker places a hand to mouth, calls out "Hurry! Hurry! Step this way!"... Yes, I can still remember it all so clearly, no matter where I was in the showgrounds I could hear the drum and the bell above everything else. The drum, the bell, the boxing tents, they're no longer there, all gone, a thing of the past replaced by rides and rides..... now I think, whatever happened to the Stong Man, whatever happened to the Half-Man Half-Woman, whatever happened to the boxing tents? For the young folk this show can be a "So that's what it was like"; for the old folks, "That's how it used to be."
I hope this play gives a nostalgic view of Australia's disappearing show era entwined with the story of an Aboriginal boxer trying to succeed in his chosen profession.' Roger Bennet, Up the Ladder, 1997, p7.
First produced by Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute as a community project in 1990. Performed by the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute at the 1990 Adelaide Fringe Festival. First professional production of revised version by the Melbourne Workers Theatre, Napier Street Theatre, South Melbourne, 1995. The Melbourne Workers Theatre and Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Arts group collaborated on a 1997 production for the Festival of the Dreaming, Sydney.
Performed at The Festival of the Dreaming, in the Tent, Forecourt of the Seymour Centre, Sydney, on 24 September to 4 October 1997.
Also performed at the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, South Bank, Brisbane on 24 to 27 Oct 2012.
