Ashes to Haberdashers

It’s Grimm up north London, where the craftsmen, technicians and puppeteers of the Little Angel Theatre have collaborated with WoI on Aschenputtel, the German version of Cinderella. After all, isn’t a rags-to-riches story the ideal vehicle (stagecoach aside) for parading the fabric houses’ new collections? Poet laureate Simon Armitage wrote the verse, while Ruth Sleightholme has been pulling the strings

Photography by Jasper Fry

17 September 2026

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Ashes to ashes… / The doctor has closed / his little black bag,

the priest has folded / his pale white hands. / A fire goes out in the house

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but embers glow / in the aftermath, / in the home of the heart.

And ash from the hearth / will feed the soil,

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and a tree as it grows / will comfort the soul

with its arms and limbs, / with its coats and capes and cloaks of leaves.

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But who is that and who is this

pushing in through the door

with indecent haste,

all hatstand straight,

all whalebone stiff,

all starched and stuffy and proper

and prim,

buttoned up,

straight laced?

It looks like fun has galloped away.

It feels as if love was yesterday.

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Don’t loaf about, / bring the washing in, / take the rubbish out.

Peel, chop, polish and scrub, / graft, toil, skivvy and slog, / more elbow grease,

less dreaming and grieving under that tree.

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Swab, sweep, fettle and dust, / chop the kindling, girl, / and open the post.

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But wait… / how inviting is this! / How exciting is this!

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Now stitch and sew,

make a show-stopping jaw-dropping

eye-popping dress

for the little princess,

now snip and pin and darn and pleat

till your fingers bleed,

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then go to the garden / and weep. And wish. And fall asleep.

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Then wake in a miracle gown / of flickering, glimmering, shimmering, leaves.

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What a jig, what a whirl,

what a blast, what a ball,

the fine young gent and the girl in his arms

spinning round and round.

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But the arms of the clock / go round as well,

better get along home, / giddy up, giddy up.

Ashes girl sleeps in the inglenook.

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Then back to the dance / and the bright lights,

what a trip, what a treat, / what a buzz, what a waltz,

her hands in his, / but the hands of the clock go round as well

and the face of the clock / says time to scoot,

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hide in the skirts of the leafy tree.

One rare bird on a bough / that in truth / is a foot,

one shoe on the ground / like fallen fruit.

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Lovestruck, smitten, / head over heels.

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The golden slipper / must fit like…a mitten?

The shoe of love / must fit like…a glove?

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Surely only a well-born lady / of breeding and class / could carry this off;

and yes! – ta-da! –

it’s the perfect size / give or take a tootsie or two,

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once the carving knife / has hacked and sliced.

When gold meets blood / no good will come.

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Then picture this: / the matchstick girl

who was barely more / than cinders and rags

and little more / than a chimney sweep,

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and the gent who swept her / straight off her feet,

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now applauded by leaves, / now held and framed

in the shelter and shade / of the family tree.

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Poem by Simon Armitage CBE, Poet Laureate.
Director: Ruth Sleightholme
Location: Litle Angel Theatre
Puppet Designers: Ash Appadu, Oliver Hymans
Puppet Carvers: Hugo Allison, Maria Herbert-Liew, Jess Shead
Puppet painter: Valeriya Voronkina
Puppeteers: Alicia Britt, Rachael Leonard, Mohsen Nouri, Soledad Zarate
Costume: Amy Green, Deborah Lindley
Garden and tree fabrication: Christine Moon, Emily Gray.
Setbuild: London Art Makers
Proscenium artwork: Emily Faccini
Assistants: David Lipton, Rose Eaglesfield and Florence McKechnie

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