[3] According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Up the Ladder takes the audience right inside the spangled, sweaty, tatty and deceptive world of the travelling sideshow carnival, from tawdry fake snake charmers to the sawdust of the boxing ring.
[co-director] Enoch says the Aboriginal culture comes through in the play's physicality, mocking humour and the sparse nature of the dialogue.
[3] The fact that the play emphasizes positive aspects of the Aboriginal experience in travelling shows led at least one reviewer to criticize it as apolitical.
[4] In Funerals and Circuses, first performed at the Adelaide Festival in 1992, Bennett dealt with issues of racism and inter-racial relationships in a small, racially tense town in South Australia.
He served as writer-in-residence at the Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment in Alice Springs and at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide.