Submitted photo Eden Lesnansky, left, is Aoife and Adam Dominick is The Beast in Reina Hardy’s play “Glassheart,” which opens Friday at Hopewell Theatre in Youngstown.

A tale as old as time gets a new twist at Hopewell Theatre.

Reina Hardy’s “Glassheart” will be staged this weekend at the Youngstown community theater. “Glassheart” originally was scheduled to open in June and run for two weeks, but it was postponed due to an illness in the cast.

It’s a retelling of the classic fairy tale of “Beauty and the Beast,” a story that has inspired artists (Jean Cocteau) and conglomerates (Disney). It also inspired director Jaye Mills to submit it for consideration to Hopewell.

“There’s something about those fairy tales,” Mills said. “We’ve been reading them our whole lives, maybe they were read to us as kids. We’ve seen the Disney movies, but there’s something about those stories that have been around for hundreds of years that still grab onto us, and there’s still new avenues we can explore in those stories. Something about this just really grabbed my attention.”

Mills discovered the play after attending a different production at a theater in Washington, D.C. He was so impressed by the theater’s work, he started researching other shows it had staged and came across Hardy’s script.

Her play doesn’t take place in a castle; it’s set in a rundown Chicago apartment where the main character has downsized in order to save money.

The lone male in the story is identified in the script as the Beast, but he never is referred to by that name in the play himself. His sole remaining servant is a cheerful lamp named Only.

Another tenant may be the only one who can help break the spell. Her name is Aoife, which is Gaelic for “beauty.” There’s also a building manager, one with a fondness for gingerbread and children. She’s identified in the script as “The Witch.”

The parallels to the fairy tales are evident, but they are not overt.

“You get it based on the characterization and the nods that we have to the classic Disney or even the old paintings from the original story,” Mills said. “They’re very subtle. They show up in things scattered about the set, elements within the costumes. You really have to pay attention, and that’s kind of the fun of designing our set and designing our costumes. How can we give a nice little nod to it without being too on the nose? If you’re paying attention, you’ll pick up on quite a few little references that we sprinkled throughout.”

The cast features Adam Dominick, Eden Lesnansky, Maria Wright Ceraolo and Teri Norling, and Mills said he had a good turnout for auditions despite “Glassheart” not being a well-known play.

“The four actors that got cast have really added an immense amount of depth since we started rehearsing,” Mills said. “They have been playing around with different ways in which they can communicate those traditional things that you would think of when you think of a beast or a witch, but they’re adding a realism to it, because the story takes place in modern times. They’re adding the element that these people now have to deal with modern problems, so that gives their characters real depth and emotion.”

The play also is well-suited to Hopewell’s stage.

“It’s the perfect space for this,” Mills said. “It’s intimate. The actors are right up close to the audience. What we were going for is that the audience should feel like they are peering into the windows of this apartment and watching what’s happening, maybe from an apartment building across the street. They’re just eavesdropping on the drama happening within this shabby apartment, and theHopewell is just the best space for that.”

If you go …

WHAT: “Glassheart”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Hopewell Theatre, 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $22.50 for adults and $17.30 for students and senior citizens and are available online at hopwelltheatre.org and by calling 330-746-5455.