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Lulu Popplewell on love, OCD and why weddings are a scam

James Macfarlane James Macfarlane
14 Jul 2025

James Macfarlane chats to Lulu Popplewell about love, OCD and the bisexual implications of Robin Hood.

I like to share because I think that in sharing, there’s something to connect over or learn and, hopefully, find funny

After a hit debut with Actually Actually, you’re back with Love Love. Was it obvious love would be the next big theme, or did it sneak up on you during therapy?

It wasn’t obvious at all, weirdly. I spent my year off creating an entirely different show about chronic illness and body stuff. It was only in December 2024 I realised that while the show wasn’t bad, I was going to feel really negative performing that show every day for a month. So my very patient and talented director, Joz Norris, said: OK, no worries, what else is on your mind?

I had an old ex stuck in my brain at the time for reasons I couldn’t understand, and I realised the idea of love felt interesting to explore – specifically a desire to understand what it is, and why it’s worth pursuing when the fallout can be so awful.

The show title isn’t even meant to be a play on the last show’s title… that was very much by accident. Love Love is just a slightly hideous phrase I use with some people I care about.

This show digs into the messiness of relationships, obsession and mental illness. How did you strike the right tone between heartfelt and hilarious?

This was more something to look at carefully with the mental illness stuff than the love stuff, I think – it’s fairly easy to tread the line between the two when the topic is more universal.

But I really strongly feel that we shouldn’t feel like we’re done talking about mental illness in comedy. I understand maybe people feel bored of hearing about depression and anxiety, and if that’s the case then hopefully that’s a good thing… it means it’s been destigmatised to the point of being boring. What a win!

But there’s still a ton of stigma around other stuff – stuff that feels scary to hear about still. E.g. bipolar, psychosis, and my main focus in the show, Pure OCD.

Getting the tone right while making it funny is hard. It’s hard to educate concisely but fairly on something you feel passionate about, while also not making it overly heartfelt. Hopefully there are enough jokes in there to balance it out.

Your background in psychotherapy and counselling adds an extra layer to the comedy. Has training in that field changed the way you write or perform?

Maybe? This show touches on tropes of the human condition and the existential difficulties of love (but, you know, with jokes).

I think on the one hand my training has informed me, but on the other it’s made writing harder. Often I’ve thought things like: “Yes, but what you aren’t exploring there is the relational attachment element of what’s going on, and the fact that issues of trauma and esteem would impact how someone reacts individually to an ex-partner…” and I just have to tell myself: oh my god shut up and pick a lane to write in, because that’s what makes a show better and funnier.

It’s impossible to cover the nuanced reality of things without making it a TED Talk. So it informs what I’m interested in, but does then also make it a nightmare to force myself to gloss over some of the vast generalisations I’m making in the show.

The show covers everything from Pure OCD to the bisexual implications of Robin Hood. Were there any bits you hesitated to include, or was it full steam ahead into the oversharing?

I’ve been described as an oversharer a couple of times in reviews, I think? It’s an odd one because I don’t take it as an insult, but the phrasing “over” implies it’s too much.

The aim is never to be too much to the point I make the audience uncomfortable! I do like playing with the line between surprising the audience with honesty, and bringing them in on an experience in a way that feels shared and relatable.

But speaking openly about things comes naturally to me – I like to share because I think that in sharing, there’s something to connect over or learn and, hopefully, find funny.

That said – yes, there were elements to the dynamics of the ex at the centre of the show that I cut out. It felt like that was making it too much about me trying to work through something specific to me alone, and not about how we might all relate to the subject matter.

Your debut sold out and transferred to Soho Theatre. With Love Love, what are you hoping audiences take away this time around – beyond maybe an urge to rewatch Disney classics with fresh eyes?

I genuinely just hope audiences enjoy it. This show has been a real labour of (pardon the fart) love.

I started making this show in December 2024, and I then spent most of spring in hospital/too ill to do comedy. So this show has been a huge effort of trying to play catch-up, of trying to do what I could, when I could, and get something I’m proud of over the line in time for the Fringe.

And I am very proud of it.

Also – that weddings are scams for gifts.

James Macfarlane

James Macfarlane

Broadway Baby's Comedy Editor and Scotland Editor. In a previous life James did the same thing for ScotsGay. But we poached him.

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