Readers who have seen The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on stage will recall that a dog is brought on a considerable way into the second half. At this point, some people in the audience (but by no means all) focus all their attention on the dog, and nothing else seems to matter. Lulu Popplewell enters the stage with her dog, Dotty, a “mental health assistance animal”, as Popplewell herself describes her, looked after for the duration of the show at the performance I attended by an audience member who doesn’t have any pets of her own. Dotty sat on someone’s lap and didn’t make a fuss at all.
Unlike some people who have effectively self-diagnosed themselves with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Popplewell actually does have ‘Pure O’ – it still counts as OCD, but is essentially obsessive thoughts without accompanying physical compulsions. To this end, Pure O compulsions are hidden more often than not, thus the perception is that Popplewell is merely obsessing over something, but it isn’t something she can snap out of.
Popplewell has been outspoken previously about other comedians who have presented her with (let’s just tell it as it is) possible career boosts in return for sexual favours. Here, she’s bold enough to namedrop a couple of men who have behaved inappropriately towards her. Let’s just say she is still welcome at the Edinburgh Fringe, and they are not. Sat at her keyboard throughout – she ordinarily does move about a bit more but her knees were playing up. She does not consider herself either a singer or a musician (despite, frankly, concrete evidence to the contrary).
Pieces of paper hang from lines of string attached to the back wall of the stage area, seemingly a random collection of people, places and things written on them. It transpires these are what previous audience members are triggered by – everything from coleslaw to the motion picture Free Willy. Elsewhere, I liked a section about wedding gifts being a scam – indeed, looking at wedding gift lists, why does a couple require cutlery and towels? Why do they not have those already? A wide-ranging and disarmingly witty comedy hour.
Infectiously excitable and effortlessly relatable, Lulu Popplewell chronicles everything she’s learnt from her terrible ex partners and draws on her training in psychotherapy and counselling to figure out whether love is a warm feeling of safety or the darkest throes of madness. A pertinent and hopeful hour packed with sharp-witted reflections on wedding gifts and candid revelations about awful dates, Pure OCD and the bisexual implications of Disney’s Robin Hood.
LULU POPPLEWELL: LOVE LOVE
Underbelly George Square at the Edinburgh Fringe
30 July to 24 August 2025
