The Shy

MANIFESTO

17 year old Callum is proud to be shy and he thinks you should be too, because what this noisy, crazy world needs right now is a bit more self-restraint. The Shy Manifesto is a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy drama about a shy boy who is fed up of constantly being told to come out of his shell. Tonight he is to address an audience of radical shy comrades and incite the meek to finally rise up and inherit the earth. But memories of the previous night’s drunken escapades at a classmate’s end-of-term party keep intruding, and threaten to upend the fragile identity he has created for himself.

The Shy Manifesto is a solo piece that takes the experience of being shy as its central subject- something which has rarely been explored in drama, and yet which touches on many audience members lives.

Callum delivers his manifesto, exploring adolescence, isolation, self-loathing and sexuality. His irreverent lightness of touch, and multi- rolling as the other characters in his story endear him to the audience, encoraging us that we, too, can be proud to be shy.

Written by

MICHAEL ROSS

Michael studied scriptwriting at Bournemouth University and playwriting with the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme. His previous plays include Happy To Help (Park Theatre, 2016) published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama and shortlisted for the Liverpool Hope Playwriting Prize, and praised by critics as ‘a funny witty take on the bizarre world of indentured corporate servitude’ (Exeunt) ‘sharply written’ (Aleks Sierz) ‘What a delight it is to see a new comedy on the London stage, moreover oset in England with plenty to say about the way we live now’
(Broadway World).

In 2017, his play Eyes Full Of Pornography was selected for the
Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival in New York. In 2018,
his play Work Makes You Free was performed to critical acclaim at the VAULT Festival; ‘Ross’s virtuoso script… an unexpected highlight of the VAULT this year’ (Fringe Guru) ‘Promising new writing about work and the values we attach to it’ (The Stage) ‘The writing is sharp and imaginative… in one moving scene, tears quietly rolled down the face of the man sitting next to me.’

Gallery

[NOTE: Example gallery below, that we can hide for launch and add pictures too once you have them]