The Ash Girl – June 2010

Written by: Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by: Cath Angell
Dates: June 1st – 5th, 2010

Wertenbaker’s biggest innovation is to suggest that the forest en route to the palace is populated by the Seven Deadly Sins, which are out to destroy humanity. She even adds a further allegorical figure, Sadness, who tries to tempt Ashgirl towards death, and battles with the Fairy in the Mirror for her soul.
The result is like a mix of C.S. Lewis and Sondheim’s Into the Woods: an eclectic fairy-tale anthology.
In an old house, Ashgirl lives huddled deep in the protection of an ashy hearth. With her mother dead and her father away, she lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters. When the invitation to the ball arrives from the prince, Ashgirl finds the strength to go. When she gets home, Ashgirl realizes that in order to regain the fleeting happiness she found in the arms of the prince, she must fight the monsters who have slithered and insinuated their way into her heart and mind. She must believe in herself for ohers to do so. Ash Girl is prey to self-doubt and is under the thumb of her stepmother.

Cast