Please don’t fall in love with me (it’s really not sexy when that happens) – Hen & Chickens Theatre

Brought to the Camden Fringe by Pinklepause Productions, Please don’t fall in love with me (it’s really not sexy when that happens) is an entertaining comedy that dives into the world of 2007 London’s most famous knicker shop: Knickers Forever. We follow the AGENT, played by the show’s writer Mollie Blue, as she takes us on a roller-coaster of creepy customers, charming clientele, and the constant craziness that comes with her chosen territory.

Blue is charming in the role, the perfect host for a show which aims to be ‘silly, shocking, and ever so sexy’. At times, I found her performance a tad over-blown, but this, it turned out, was entirely intentional. We’ll get to that later. Poppy-Anne Taplin plays the AGENT’S hapless but lovable colleague BIMBO. Despite not being given much emotional depth to work with, Taplin brings the character to life wonderfully, providing some of the funniest moments in the play. She and Blue’s chemistry is palpable. The cast is completed by Ryan Dickson, who doubles as PERV, a self-explanatory character who rings the shop every day for some ‘motivation’, and THE BOY, a worker in a local record-shop who stops by most days to hang out with the AGENT and BIMBO (though he may want to do more than that). Dickson moves well between the characters, providing them with a skin-crawling energy and an earnest charisma respectively. The cast work well together, weaving between quieter conversations and bombastic physical comedy with ease.

The highlight of the show, however, was undoubtedly the final scene, in which the AGENT and the PERV have their final phone call. It was understated, giving both Blue and Dickson a chance to channel their characters’ hidden vulnerabilities. And, as a result, we are left to recontextualise everything else we’ve seen, from the AGENT’s motivations to each actor’s performance. It was a moment of emotionally effective brilliance in an otherwise standard comedy.

All that being said, there is little in Please don’t fall in love with me that feels truly fresh. Most of the laughs are derived from low-hanging fruit, the PERV serving as the most obvious example. But beyond that, there’s little that really pops. Everything from Shardé Neikaiya’s direction, to Daniel Munday’s movement sequences, to the unimaginative use of sound and lighting, felt serviceable rather than special. Enough to get a laugh from the audience, and no more. This was particularly frustrating as the very nature of the script gives the creatives license to really push the boat out and experiment. If you can’t swing for the fences with an over-the-top comedy about running Knickers Forever, when can you?

Ultimately, with the exception of its final scene and a few hilarious one-liners, Please don’t fall in love with me offers its audience little in the way of fresh, clever comedy and emotional insight, instead relying on shock-value and/or jokes you’d find in any show that takes sex as its subject matter. I was perfectly entertained, but never blown away.

Please don’t fall in love with me (it’s really not sexy when that happens) is playing at the Hen & Chickens theatre until the 21^st of August.

Reviewer: Ben Pearson

Reviewed: 20^th August 2025

North West End UK Rating: