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‘I dreamt of a show where the audience becomes horny’: the Swedish puppet play starring bonking barbies
Malmö Dockteater, Sweden's only puppet theatre for adults, has adapted Jackie Collins's 1968 debut novel *The World Is Full of Married Men* into an explicit puppet production using anatomically modified Barbie and Ken dolls. The show, which uses puppetry to depict the novel's sex scenes rather than shying away from them, is transferring from Malmö and Stockholm to the newly refurbished Yard theatre in east London, performed in Swedish with English subtitles.
The production features a set of 14 dollhouses, with two puppeteers manipulating customised dolls while also performing as life-sized versions of their characters; a videographer livestreams close-up footage of the miniature action onto a large screen, making the mechanics of puppeteering fully visible to the audience. Director Erik Holmström said he wanted to create a show that makes audiences "secretly" aroused, arguing that puppets allow sex to be portrayed on stage in ways that would feel embarrassing or shocking with human actors. Founded in a Malmö basement in 2015, the company has previously staged unconventional works including a robot-and-dinosaur existentialist piece and a toilet-roll-tube homage to Dante's Inferno.
In short
- Swedish puppet theatre adapts Jackie Collins's raunchy 1968 novel using modified Barbie dolls
- Show combines live puppeteering with livestreamed close-up video on screen
- Transfers to London's Yard theatre after runs in Malmö and Stockholm
Explained simply
Malmö Dockteater, Sweden's only puppet theatre for adults, has adapted Jackie Collins's 1968 novel *The World Is Full of Married Men* into a production that depicts sexual scenes using anatomically modified Barbie and Ken dolls. Founded in 2015, the theatre company is known for unconventional work, including productions featuring robots and dinosaurs.
The production uses elaborate staging with 14 dollhouses and two puppeteers who also perform as life-sized versions of their characters. Close-up footage of the puppet action is filmed and projected onto a large screen, making the mechanics of puppetry fully visible to audiences.
Director Erik Holmström has argued that using puppets allows sexual content to be shown on stage in ways that would feel uncomfortable or shocking with human actors. The production has been staged in Sweden and is now transferring to London.
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