The Standard of Living

About The Standard of Living

The Standard of Living is a new play by James Graham at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by Nicholas Hytner and receiving its world premiere in a strictly limited twelve week season from 21 September to 12 December 2026. It tells the story of John Maynard Keynes, the economist whose ideas reshaped how governments think about money, work and crisis, and of Lydia Lopokova, the Russian ballerina who became his wife.

Rory Kinnear plays Keynes. Natalia Osipova, principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, makes her West End acting debut as Lopokova, bringing a dancer's presence to a story that moves between Cambridge lecture halls, Bloomsbury drawing rooms and the ballet stage. The supporting cast places Keynes among his contemporaries: Naomi Frederick as Virginia Woolf, Claire Price as Vanessa Bell, Pip Carter as Lytton Strachey, Agatha Enecio as Dora Carrington, Thomas Flynn as Duncan Grant, Laurie Kynaston as Friedrich Hayek and George Taylor as William Beveridge.

What to expect

Expect a big, argumentative play about ideas, staged with movement and dance running through it. Graham writes about politics with unusual warmth, and Hytner's production sets the sparring of the Bloomsbury Group against the economic collapse and rearmament that framed Keynes's working life. The arguments that produced the welfare state, and Keynes's long disagreement with Friedrich Hayek about the role of the state, play out alongside a genuine love story. The running time is around 2 hours 30 minutes including a 20 minute interval, and the play is suggested for ages 12 and over.

Theatre Royal Haymarket and getting there

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is one of the oldest theatres still working in London, on the same site since 1720 and rebuilt behind John Nash's Grade I listed portico in 1821. It seats around 890 across stalls, royal circle, upper circle and gallery, which keeps the room intimate for a play driven by talk. It is a two minute walk from Piccadilly Circus on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines, with Charing Cross and Leicester Square close by. There are 65 steps up to the upper circle and gallery, so book lower in the house if stairs are a concern.

Press reviews

Rory Kinnear is superb in this must-see play, says The Telegraph (4/5). The Evening Standard calls James Graham's Keynes drama joyfully Stoppardian, with Kinnear magnetic at the centre. Time Out says Kinnear is a delight, and calls it almost certainly the most enjoyable play about an economist ever written.