The Ash Girl opens this weekend

This weekend, Gloucester High School theater presents a dark, re-imagined version of Cinderella. The Ash Girl is more closely related to the original Grimm’s Brothers fairy tale than the classic Disney version of Cinderella.

Ash Girl is not just a story of love but growth of a lost and troubled girl who does not believe that she deserves any better. With the Fairy in the Mirror’s guiding words, Ash Girl takes the courageous steps to reach her happily ever after.

The 7 Deadly Sins are incorporated into the play as animalistic, mischievous villains that drive the characters to destroy one another through themselves.

“[The sins] have to force their sinful characteristics onto the humans that they are trying to destroy,” teased senior Jessalyn Silveira, who plays the sin Angerbird.

They are not the only trouble in the story, however, for the wicked stepsisters are intense and diabolical in their path to gain their mother’s approval.

“She wants it to look like she cares about her daughter’s well-being, when in reality she only cares about their appearances,” said Madison Smith, who plays Ash Girl’s stepmother. “The daughters have been so isolated from the outside world that they don’t realize that their mother uses them as pawns for her own personal gain.”

The main villain of the show is not the abusive family, or the monsters in the forest, but sadness. This personified emotion causes the most destruction in Ash Girl’s life.

“She is a mystery, nobody knows where she came from or what she is. I think of her as being a tortured spirit, like a vengeful ghost, and now is trying to make others feel the same way,” said Mikayla Healey, who portrays sadness.

Many of the characters who were originally out-shined by the princess are given more personality and background in this stage production. The Prince Amir (who everyone just knows as “Charming”) is given a bolder identity who, like Ash Girl, strives for acceptance and a brighter future.
IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Ash Girl
WHERE: Gloucester High School auditorium
WHEN: Thursday, November 19 @ 7:00pm, Friday, November 20, @7:00pm, and Saturday November 21 @ 2:00pm and 7:00pm
HOW MUCH: $5 students and $8 adults