Emily Chattle’s Lowen, left, Ceridwen Smith’s Robin and Annie Rae Donaghy’s Ellis in Next Door But One’s When Robins Appear. All pictures: James Drury
ACCORDING to British folklore, “robins appear when loved ones are near”.
The beloved Redbreast is omnipresent on Christmas cards, not least on York printmaker Gerard Hobson’s exclusive illustration for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s 2025 charity card.
Mother Hutch had a corner devoted to each Yuletide’s new arrivals, and since her passing in September 2025, your reviewer has worn her favourite Robin badge on his lapel.
That lapel has a new addition, thanks to York community arts collective Next Door But One, whose cast of Ceridwen Smith, Emily Chattle and Annie Rae Donaghy hand out When Robins Appear badges at the conclusion to NDB1’s inaugural Christmas show (after 12 years of wholly inclusive, wholly accessible theatre-making for children and young people in and around the city).
Emily Chattle’s Lowen, left, and Annie Rae Donaghy’s Ellis experiencing “a different kind of Christmas” in Next Door But One’s When Robins Appear
Writer-director Matt Harper Hardcastle has penned “a different kind of Christmas show for those who have a different kind of Christmas”, in part inspired by the loss of his mother to cancer.
Enter the Robin, the harbinger of British winter birds, the messenger from the spirit world whose presence is deemed to be a comforting sign of a late loved one being close at hand.
Here, the Robin takes the form of Ceridwen Smith in magnificent gold and red, topped off with feathery plumage and tailed with natty red and pink pumps. On occasion, her hand transforms into a bird-sized Robin, again bedecked in festive livery of gold and red.
On entering York Explore’s wood-panelled Marriott Room, eyes are drawn to Emily Chattle’s Lowen and Annie Rae Donaghy’s Ellis, each looking glum, avoiding eye contact, tucked away but still in plain sight behind wooden triangular shapes with numbers that evoke both Advent Calendars and decorations in Catherine Chapman’s child’s play of a set design.
Movement director Bailey Dowler, left, writer-director Matt Harper-Hardcastle, Ceridwen Smith, Annie Rae Donaghy and Emily Chattle in rehearsal for When Robins Appear
Lowen, 12, misses her late Gran, known to her as Granbow, on account of wearing clothing as colourful as a rainbow: a habit Lowen seems to be mirroring in her get-up of pink, red, grey, amber and yellow stripes.
Ellis, also 12, is looking after her ill mum, both uncertain of her future. She feels as blue as her clothing, a mood not enhanced by moving into a new home and being unable to find her phone charger.
Both she and Lowen are surrounded by boxes: in Lowen’s case, the boxes for packing away Granbow’s belongings with her Dad (played by Smith, denoted by a hat, either worn or held in her hand when this admirable multi-tasker is playing Ellis’s Mum with the simple symbol of a pair of glasses).
Facing a first Christmas without her cherished, shining grandma, Lowen needs to find one elusive box, in particular, the one with her Dad’s fairy lights that Granbow (Smith in role number four) used to transform the cupboard under the stairs where he would retire in shy childhood days.
Emily Chattle’s Lowen with Ceridwen Smith’s Granbow in the shadow-play light box scene in When Robins Appear
At the start, Chattle’s Lowen and Donaghy’s Ellis do not know each other, but each is facing the challenge of a “different kind of Christmas”, of dealing with grief or illness, of coming to terms with changing circumstances or a change of address, above all of feeling overwhelmed.
Who should bring them together but Smith’s chatterbox Robin, chirping away ten to the dozen. What then ensues is an invitation from Robin to, first, Lowen, then Ellis, to recall a past Christmas that made them happy and then to invoke the spirit of that story into Christmas this year.
Those fairy lights and Ellis’s Mac’n’Cheese Christmas Day lunch feature in stories told with delightful interplay, typically imaginative direction by Harper-Hardcastle and highly engaging characterisation by Chattle, already such a whizz at children’s entertainment, and Donaghy, back home for Christmas in York after graduating with first class honours in contemporary theatre at East 15 Acting School and taking her first steps in London’s theatre jungle.
Joshua Goodman’s enchanting songs and Bailey Dowler’s less-is-more movement direction complement Harper-Hardcastle’s beautifully judged direction as the chameleon Smith and the Chattle & Donaghy double act – where they bring out the inner child in us all – hold the attention of children aged seven to 11 and their adults alike.
Emily Chattle’s Lowen, left, Ceridwen Smith’s Robin and Annie Rae Donaghy’s Ellis on Catherine Chapman’s child’s play of a set design
As ever with Next Door But One, whose research took in working with York Young Carers, this is a caring, considerate show, with British Sign Language to boot, that says so much in under an hour for those whose story is not the stuff of glitzy, wham-bam pantomimes.
What’s more, you will not see a better use of boxes this festive season, gradually transforming into a Christmas tree before your eyes, while an earlier shadow-play light box scene is wondrous.
NDB1 are taking When Robins Appear on the road for eight primary school performances as well as public shows in Explore York libraries that all sold out before the tour opened. The £3.50 ticket price makes When Robins Appear the best-value festive family show in York this Christmas.
It would be no surprise to see this magical Robin bobbing around again next winter.
Next Door But One in When Robins Appear at York Explore, at Clifton Explore, December 18, 5.30pm; York Explore, December 20 and 21, 11am and 2pm. All sold out. Box office for returns only: nextdoorbutone.co.uk.
On the Way Up as Emily Chattle’s Lowen and Annie Rae Donaghy’s Ellis find festive cheer in a different kind of Christmas