Swedish theatre company stages explicit Jackie Collins puppet show in UK

Malmö Dockteater, an experimental Swedish theatre company, has premiered a stage adaptation of Jackie Collins’ debut novel, The World Is Full of Married Men, in the UK. Directed by Erik Holmström, who also designed the puppets, the production stages the 1960s showbusiness narrative using repurposed Barbie dolls inside miniature, lit doll’s houses.

The performance relies on explicit adult content, featuring dolls equipped with anatomical details and graphic sound effects to depict infidelity and sexual encounters. Puppeteers Erik Olsson and Kajsa Ericsson voice the characters, while videographer Josefin Beischer projects the miniature action onto a large screen for the audience.

For the European cultural sector, the production demonstrates a novel commercial strategy for monetising legacy literary intellectual property. By translating Collins’ original English text into Swedish and then back into English via translator Lulu Raczka, the company has created a distinct avant-garde product that differentiates itself in a highly competitive theatre market.

The adaptation also intersects with contemporary public debates regarding gender dynamics and power structures in the entertainment industry. The narrative explores predatory film directors and savage casting couches decades before the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement, offering a historical lens on workplace inequality that remains highly relevant to modern corporate environments.

The story follows Linda, a bored 1960s housewife yearning for more, and her philandering husband David, who is having an affair with aspiring actor and model Claudia. The production includes lifesize human actors dressed as the dolls, blending exquisite period set design by Maja Kall with live performance to examine the politics of marriage and female ambition.

The show also highlights the enduring commercial appeal of Collins’ wider literary estate. Industry observers note that the production's success could establish a precedent for adapting the rest of her extensive back catalogue, with a future theatrical run based on her subsequent novel, The World Is Full of Divorced Women, further testing the viability of experimental puppetry.