AustLit

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.