Staging Shyness: Cameron King on directing Wyld Woman

In a comedic, heartfelt look at the pain of extreme shyness, Isabel Renner’s one-woman show Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl celebrates the awkward, the quirky, and those who second-guess themselves into silence. Shy Girl glides between ten vivid characters as she prepares for her NYC birthday party, and anxiously rehearses conversations to avoid screwing up in front of the “legends” she’s invited. We spoke to director Cameron King

What is Shy Girl about?

Shy Girl is the nameless narrator that desperately craves real friends.  She represents the timid creature in us all - the one that fears unwelcome attention and finds comfort wearing the warm disguise of an unheard stranger.

How did you meet Isabel Renner?

Isabel and I met at 13 and 14 while attending LaGuardia, a rigorous performing arts high school in New York City.  Our collaboration is inherently odd because our younger selves would question what Isabel Renner and Cameron King were doing hanging out.  Not that we weren’t friends, I just never got the chance to truly understand Isabel because she was (is) so enchantingly shy.

Isabel plays 10 different characters, which was your favourite to create?

Each character slips on to Isabel with such ease and specificity that it’s hard to choose a favourite.  In 2022, we began our process by diving into each person and extracting their physical specificities - creating “anchors” that serve as shorthand for Isabel’s muscle memory to snap through full transformations. Through years of getting to know them, the characters have each introduced and reintroduced themselves to us.  I think the character that brings me most joy is Patrice the Manager; her steaming irritation at Shy Girl radiates heat through any theatre.

What was the most fun aspect of creating the show?

This project has brought me no greater gift than my closeness to Isabel Renner. She radiates tender kindness with generosity, and I would not be the director I am without her by my side. On top of that, I somehow see the same legends at our party again and again. Doing this show has created a community of shy girls ((gender neutral)) that relate to our work, which is an artist’s dream.

What was the reception to the show like at Edinburgh Festival Fringe when it was performed there in 2024? What was the best audience interaction?

Fringe was an incredibly useful incubator. We started with one version, and used our remarkably varying audiences as hands to mould Wyld into what she is today. Debbie was a timid solo patron that I coerced into sitting closer to the action. She resisted, but ended the show so happy that her laughter was able to break emotional dams for the rest of the audience.

You’re American, but you have some unusual connections to London through your mother and your grandmother - what can you tell us about those?

Yes!  My grandmother was an amazingly strict Londoner who cared for her family with rigour and taste. Even when Geen was in the latest stages of Alzheimer’s, I made sure to braid my hair and change my shoes to see her. I always assumed she developed her standards from her proximity to the royal family; Geen was a model for the Queen when they shared the same measurements in my grandmother’s youth. Though she left England to marry my grandfather, she made sure to keep her heart in London. My mother, Kate Snyder, was the first American accepted into the Royal Ballet School. She spent her whole adolescence here, perfecting her arabesque and new posh accent. Years after she graduated, the Royal Ballet building where she took class was bought by LAMDA. In 2020, I spent a semester abroad studying classical acting in those same classrooms.

What do you hope people will leave the show feeling?

Mostly, I hope that they meet new people. For me, Wyld Woman is an ongoing experiment on the audience experience. How can we more easily cross the threshold between an actor giving a performance and a friend telling a story? What does it take to escape a group meditation and create a truly shared experience? I leave the show feeling like I have new friends, and that’s the most hopeful feeling I know.

Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl is presented by Catherine Schreiber at Southwark Playhouse Borough from 23 Oct - 15 Nov https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/wyld-woman/