Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl | Southwark Playhouse Borough

Most of us have rehearsed a conversation at some point in our lives. But an entire birthday party may be going a bit too far. Yet that is the premise of Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl, as the eponymous Shy Girl is so, you guessed it, shy, that she needs a full run-through in order to prepare for her party. 

Written and performed by Isabel Renner, and directed and developed by Cameron King, Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl immediately immerses its audiences in Shy Girl’s world. Audience members are given sticky name badges at the door, allowing Renner to obliterate the fourth wall and speak directly to individuals in the audience, and invited into Shy Girl’s New York apartment, which set and costume designer Lucy Fowler has bedecked in pink spangles for the occasion. Some of the audience are even given seats on Shy Girl’s sofa and at her dining table, seats which come with the promise of even greater interaction with Renner and the potential to lose your drink as she clambers and hurls herself onto the table throughout the piece.

Once Shy Girl has got over the shock of having an audience and located her trusty prompt cards, she begins the story of how she got to this point. A cast of colourful side characters, including cool girl roommate Memphis who talks with a lisp because she’s in her “femme fatale era”, six-year old therapist/babysitting client Shelly, self-absorbed colleague/love interest Pino who is writing his magnum opus about himself, and questionable German gynaecologist Jürgen, are all skilfully brought to life by Renner as Shy Girl falls in love with a real life human for the first time.

This goes about as well as can be expected, and Renner hilariously depicts Shy Girl’s attempts to connect with Pino, and to smooth over his many inadequacies by fantasising about him as a hot British man. Along the way she also manages to attract the attention of the Legends, a group of people in her neighbourhood who she considers far too cool to give her the time of day. 

Lighting design by Catja Hamilton and sound design by Sasha Howe aid the transformation of Fowler’s apartment set into multiple different locations through the piece, as well as bringing in some of the additional voices without solely relying on Renner’s narration.

Renner is an excellent performer, and the script is fast-paced and funny, but it is limited in its failure to depict its protagonist as anything other than shy. “You’re so quiet it’s hard to get to know you,” Shy Girl is told near the end of the piece, and even as she narrates her own story this proves to be the case, with several of the side characters far better fleshed out. This makes it harder to connect with Shy Girl, or to fully buy into her journey. Some further development of the character would give the piece more emotional resonance and push it further along its own journey. 

Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl runs at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 15th November 2025.

Tickets and More Information

★★★☆☆ (3*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Charlie