South Sea Bubble (play)

For the stock market collapse of 1720 known as the "South Sea Bubble", see South Sea Company.

Indoor scene with young man playing a drum in the foreground, and seated youngish woman watching him; both are well-dressed
Ronald Lewis and Vivien Leigh in Act 2

South Sea Bubble is a play by Noël Coward, described in the published text as a light comedy. It was written in 1949 but not performed until 1951, and not in its final form until 1956. Under the title Island Fling it was given in the US at the Westport Country Playhouse and the Cape Playhouse in Massachusetts in July and August 1951 with Claudette Colbert in the starring role. After a pre-London tour the British production opened at the Lyric Theatre in the West End in April 1956, starring Vivien Leigh. It ran for 276 performances.

The play depicts the consequences when romance and politics overlap in a British colonial territory in the Pacific.