While Isabel Renner’s 70 minute one-woman show about breaking out of her Shy Girl mode lacks consistent plot beats, it contains an entertaining array of quirky characters and excellent design elements
In this, the post-Fleabag era, one-woman comedies exploring the plights of twenty-something women finding their ways in a big city are not hard to come by. While each show makes earnest attempts to carve out their niche in the fringe landscape by trying to exhibit how they’re “not like other shows,” inevitably, the Waller-Bridge deja vu strikes sooner or later. Isabel Renner’s Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl does not escape the mold of the quirky comedy. In its attempts at individuality and uniqueness, the plot gets muddled in a scattering of overly-disparate memory vignettes and half-baked attempts at breaking the fourth wall.
Now don’t get me wrong– the quality of this production was impressive. Stepping into the theatre, you can see no expense was spared when it came to the fully fleshed-out living room and kitchen of a New York City apartment, decorated floor to ceiling in pink party decor. Attention to detail was obviously not lacking in the design of this show.
While the whole apartment is set up for a party, for the majority of the piece we are left in the dark as to precisely why. A show whose whole premise is about a ‘shy girl’ navigating living in the Big Apple, ‘amongst legends,’ despite her self-crippling ‘shy girl stuff,’ Renner recounts tales about how her shyness has impeded her desire to find love and connection. Through a series of vignetted memories, prompted by conversational topics on index cards, we witness her charcuterie board of character voices and physical comedy skills. After about five of these scenes, from her ‘hot girl roommate’ Memphis, to her 6-year-old therapist Shelly (the emotionally intelligent little girl she’s paid to babysit turned therapist), to her German gynaecologist, the plot grows cold and gets muddled in what hues dangerously close to feeling like a long form SNL audition.
Supported by Catja Hamilton’s intuitive lighting design and Sasha Howe’s subtle and dynamic sound design, several moments of the piece are engaging and playful, particularly the climactic ‘Blowjob Ballet.’ Cameron King’s direction left no stone unturned and no corner untouched– truly proven by a whole segment taking place atop the fridge.
When the eponymous Shy Girl attempts to ‘unleash her inner sex goddess’ through the Wyld Woman program, the play takes an unexpected tangent where her sex coach Twilight encourages the audience to proudly proclaim ‘My pussy is prophetic and prompt.’ Unfortunately, the attempts at audience interaction and “immersive seating” with the 4 audience members sitting at the dining table never reached their full potential. In the contemporary landscape of London theatre overflowing with interactive theatre, simply calling out audience members by name and getting them to shout out affirmations was not enough to warrant the 10 minute delayed start time where ushers scrambled about to get everyone to fill out pink name badges, and find willing people to sit onstage.
Ultimately, an impressive set and expensive production budget does not a successful play make. Hailing from New York myself, I was eager to see how this play would adapt for the British stage. Although unfamiliar with earlier iterations, it seems to strongarm British references (and accents of course) with the clientele of the restaurant Shy Girl works at is mostly from the UK, culminating in the ‘unnamed British rockstar’ hitting on her while she’s taking his order.
Despite the pitfalls of the plot, Renner does craft a compelling and comedic character with many delightful moments to enjoy. Through her trials of a failed lovelife and embarrassing Chipotle breakdown, the conclusion that we (her imaginary friends) are her real homies because we see her with love is a tad predictable, anti-climatic, and unintentionally sad, undercutting the endearing sentiment that the piece appears to be trying to cultivate. In the end, this show is an excellent vehicle for Renner to showcase her broad scope of characters, and maybe we can walk away seeing past the shy girl inside all of us to explore our true inner 6-year-old therapists.