What if one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century believed that money was only part of the equation? James Graham’s The Standard of Living explores the extraordinary life of John Maynard Keynes, asking whether art, love and human connection might ultimately be more valuable than wealth.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this new play receives its world premiere at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket this autumn, with Rory Kinnear taking on the role of Keynes and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova making her West End debut as his wife, the celebrated Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova.
Keynes is perhaps best known for revolutionising economic thinking and helping to shape the financial settlement of the Western world after the First World War. But Graham’s play looks beyond the economist in the textbooks to the man moving between two very different worlds.
On one side are the corridors of power in Whitehall, where Keynes is attempting to build a fairer economic future. On the other is the intoxicating world of the Bloomsbury Group, where artists, writers and thinkers are challenging conventional ideas about art, sexuality, relationships and how life should be lived.
Keynes’s relationships place him firmly at the centre of this bohemian circle. He marries Lydia Lopokova, a star of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, while his close relationship with the painter Duncan Grant is played by Thomas Flynn. The cast also includes Naomi Frederick as Virginia Woolf, Claire Price as her sister Vanessa Bell, Pip Carter as writer Lytton Strachey and Agatha Enecio as artist Dora Carrington.
Laurie Kynaston plays Keynes’s great economic rival Friedrich Hayek, while George Taylor appears as William Beveridge, the economist whose ideas would help lay the foundations of the British welfare state.
As markets crash and established systems begin to crumble, Keynes finds himself confronting a question that feels surprisingly contemporary: what is a good life?
Can economic systems be designed around human happiness rather than simply the accumulation of wealth? Can art and beauty change society? And can personal relationships survive when political and financial power are at stake?
Graham, the three-time Olivier Award-winning writer of Dear England, brings these questions to a story filled with music, dance, desire and intellectual argument. With set design by Bob Crowley and costumes by Jenny Beavan, the production promises to move between the austerity of Whitehall and the creative energy of Bloomsbury.
There is also a deliberate attempt to make the production accessible to a younger audience. Thousands of £25 tickets are available throughout the run, while 2,000 special Keynes Tickets offer £25 seats in the stalls and dress circle to those aged 16 to 30.
For a play about an economist who helped reshape the modern world, The Standard of Living is less interested in balance sheets than in the things that cannot easily be measured. Happiness. Beauty. Love. And the possibility of imagining a better future.
The Standard of Living at a glance
What: The Standard of Living by James Graham
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: Rory Kinnear, Natalia Osipova, Thomas Flynn, Laurie Kynaston, Naomi Frederick, Claire Price, Pip Carter and others
Venue: Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
Dates: 21 September to 12 December 2026
Opening night: 29 September 2026
Tickets: From £25
Special offer: 2,000 Keynes Tickets at £25 for ages 16 to 30, plus thousands of £25 tickets available throughout the run
Running time: TB
