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The other birds are leaving. Winter is coming. One small Red Robin stays behind.
It's a simple beginning, but one that opens onto feelings familiar to children and grown-ups alike: finding yourself somewhere suddenly unfamiliar, wondering where you belong, and learning how to make your own voice heard.
Those questions sit at the heart of Red Robin’s Winter Song, a new play by award-winning writer Manjeet Mann, produced by Leeds-based children’s theatre company Tutti Frutti.
The production opens at Bingley Arts Centre on 17 October before touring nationally, with Northern performances in Washington and Goole, and a Christmas season at Leeds Playhouse from 12–23 December.
Created for children aged three and above and their families, the show follows Robin into a quieter world as the other birds depart. New friendships, unexpected discoveries and the beauty of the surrounding landscape gradually help the little bird find the courage to sing a special winter song.
Music, playful adventures and gentle storytelling will carry that journey. Underneath it's an idea worth making space for early in life: belonging can grow without everybody having to be the same.
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For Wendy Harris, Tutti Frutti’s artistic director and the production’s director, Robin’s willingness to take a different path is central to the appeal.
“I love the way Robin discovers that being different can be a strength, and that you don’t have to follow the crowd to find where you belong,” she says.
“Manjeet brings warmth, humour and real emotional depth to the story, while making these big themes accessible to our youngest audiences.”
Wendy's final point matters. Friendship, uncertainty and the desire to fit in can occupy a considerable part of a young child’s world. Theatre offers ways to explore those feelings through characters, sound, movement and the shared experience of watching a story unfold.
A small bird can give an audience something recognisable to follow, while leaving each child room to make their own connections.
Harris describes Red Robin’s Winter Song as “a gentle, heartwarming tale that is just the tonic as the autumn colours change and the nights draw in”.
Its winter setting provides the landscape for a story about discovering company and possibility when the world initially seems a little emptier.
Founded in Leeds in 1991, Tutti Frutti has spent more than three decades creating theatre for young children and their families.
Its work includes new stories and adaptations of familiar fairy tales and fables, touring to theatres, arts centres and schools across the UK and internationally. Previous tours have taken the company to the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore.
That reach begins with a particular creative responsibility: making work that welcomes children into live performance and gives their imaginations something substantial to engage with.
The company’s work in Leeds extends beyond its touring productions. Its free Tutti Frutti Club offers primary-aged children in Harehills opportunities to explore drama, storytelling, music, movement, craft, circus skills and puppetry.
Watching and making sit alongside each other in that wider approach. Children can encounter a professional production, but they can also explore the art forms and creative choices that help bring stories to life.
For a Northern company with an international touring history, that continuing local engagement is an important part of the picture.
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Mann brings experience across theatre, novels and picture books to Robin’s story. Her stage adaptation of her debut novel, Run, Rebel, won best production at the 2025 Off West End Theatre Awards.
Writing for very young audiences needs its own precision. An idea has to be clear enough to follow while retaining the feeling that makes it worth telling.
Here, the story’s emotional movement is contained within Robin’s encounters: discovering friends, noticing beauty and gradually finding the confidence to sing.
“It’s a real privilege to be working with Tutti Frutti, an inspirational theatre company that is known across the country and beyond for its brilliant, inclusive storytelling,” Mann says.
“I hope Red Robin’s Winter Song brings as much joy to audiences as it did to me writing it.”
After the production begins its journey in Bingley this month. It will reach Arts Centre Washington on 14 November and Junction in Goole on 15 November, before its December run at Leeds Playhouse.
For families planning an autumn outing or a first encounter with theatre, it offers a gentle invitation into a story with feelings big enough to recognise.
And for its little Robin, winter is the beginning of finding a voice.
Red Robin’s Winter Song is suitable for children aged 3+ and their families.
Northern dates
For tour information and booking links, visit Tutti Frutti.
Header image: Red Robin's Winter Song (credit Firecatcher)
