South Sea Bubble (play)

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This article is about the Noel Coward play. For the 18th century economic bubble, see South Sea Bubble.

South Sea Bubble is a 1950s play by British actor and playwright Noel Coward. It was written during a period of declining popularity for Coward and failed to garner much positive response.

Originally written for Gertrude Lawrence under the name of Home and Colonial, her unexpected death meant that she never played it. Coward intended her to take it after her run in The King and I.

The play was changed into Island Fling opening in 1951 with Claudette Colbert in the lead and ran for 8 performances in Westport.

It finally opened in the West End under its final title with Vivien Leigh as Sandra, the wife of the governor of the imaginary island of Samolo. Coward liked the character so much that he later made it one of the key characters in his novel Pomp and Circumstance