Adult Puppetry Takes on Jackie Collins’s Banned 1968 Novel at London’s Yard Theatre

Swedish adult-puppet company Malmö Dockteater has mounted an explicit stage adaptation of Jackie Collins’s debut novel *The World Is Full of Married Men* at the newly refurbished Yard Theatre in east London. The production translates the novel’s graphic 1960s sex-scenes into a miniature world of modified Barbie and Ken dolls, displayed on 14 detailed dollhouses while the mechanics of puppetry are deliberately exposed to the audience.

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When Collins published *The World Is Full of Married Men* in 1968, its frank depiction of extramarital affairs, casting-couch exploitation and swinging-sixties glamour provoked bans in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The novel’s notoriety persisted, with romance writer Barbara Cartland calling it “nasty, filthy and disgusting.” Malmö Dockteater, founded in a Malmö basement workshop in 2015, has spent the past decade expanding adult puppetry in Sweden, receiving incremental state and Malmö-city funding. Development of the current adaptation began in 2021 and, according to the company, “has definitely contributed” to the rise of adult-oriented puppet work.

Swedish Puppet Theatre Sparks Outrage With Erotic Jackie Collins Adaptation

The open-plan stage places two life-size performers—Kajsa Ericsson and Erik Olsson—both as on-stage characters and as the puppeteers manipulating the dolls. A live-feed camera operated by videographer Josefin Beischer projects close-up footage of the miniature sexual encounters onto a large screen, allowing the audience to see the dolls, the strings, the glue and the hands that move them. Standard children’s toys were heavily altered: plastic genitalia were custom-drilled, hair was added, and magnets coordinate eyes and mouths. Over months of rehearsal the dolls progressed from “couldn’t pick up a phone” to moving “almost like they started to live by themselves.”

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• Erik Holmström – Director of Malmö Dockteater, responsible for the show’s concept and mechanical design.

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• Kajsa Ericsson – Performer and puppeteer, noted the technical frustrations early in rehearsals.

Swedish Puppet Theatre Sparks Outrage With Erotic Jackie Collins Adaptation

• Erik Olsson – Performer and puppeteer, highlighted the story’s modern resonance with #MeToo themes.

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• Josefin Beischer – Videographer who captures and streams the miniature action.

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Holmström emphasized the company’s commitment to transparency, noting that the open-plan arrangement “shows the hand that pulls the string or holds a prop” and that the production “works with openness, with making things visible.” He described the company’s finances as “quite safe, but always with a small budget,” while acknowledging increased state and city support over the years. The Yard Theatre, which recently doubled its size, is receiving backing from the Swedish Arts Council, positioning it to host more international, risk-taking work.

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The production has provoked “outrage” among observers who view its explicit content as a breach of theatrical propriety. Commentators point to ongoing censorship battles in regions such as Kenya, where the Kenya Film Classification Board continues to enforce strict moral standards for public entertainment. Critics argue that the overt sexual imagery, even when rendered by dolls, challenges conventional expectations of both theatre and puppetry.

Swedish Puppet Theatre Sparks Outrage With Erotic Jackie Collins Adaptation

By displacing graphic sex scenes onto plastic avatars, the show creates psychological distance that allows audiences to confront themes of power abuse and exploitation without the embarrassment often triggered by live actors. The adaptation demonstrates how adult puppetry can serve as a vehicle for contemporary social commentary, linking 1960s literary scandal to the modern #MeToo discourse and illustrating the durability of transgressive art against historic censorship.

Swedish Puppet Theatre Sparks Outrage With Erotic Jackie Collins Adaptation

Sources provide no concrete data on audience size, ticket sales or critical reception in London. Funding figures are described only qualitatively (“increased a bit from year to year”), leaving the exact scale of financial support unclear.

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• “If Jackie is telling us to do that, we do that,” — Erik Holmström, Director

Swedish Puppet Theatre Sparks Outrage With Erotic Jackie Collins Adaptation

• “I had this dream of making a show where an audience sits together and secretly becomes a bit horny,” — Erik Holmström, Director

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• “You don’t expect it from a puppet theatre.” — Erik Holmström, Director

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• “We work with openness, with making things visible.” — Erik Holmström, Director

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• “It was written more than 50 years ago,” — Erik Olsson, Performer

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• “because they couldn’t do the simplest things, like pick up a phone or open a door.” — Kajsa Ericsson, Performer

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