The Standard of Living

The Standard of Living is a new play by James Graham about the economist John Maynard Keynes, staged at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London for a limited season. It is a world-premiere production of a stand-up and comedy-style theatre piece.

The play follows Keynes as he moves between government work in Whitehall and a circle of artists, writers and lovers in the Bloomsbury Group, where he is married to the ballerina Lydia Lopokova and is close to Duncan Grant and Virginia Woolf. As financial markets collapse and Britain faces a deepening crisis, Keynes begins to ask what a good life might consist of.

The production is directed by Nicholas Hytner and stars Rory Kinnear alongside the Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova, who makes her West End debut in it. The material describes the show as combining music, dance and debate, and as a comic and moving portrait of a man who wanted to imagine a better society.

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a established London theatre, and this production is presented there on this visit to the West End. The listing is aimed at audiences interested in new writing, biographical drama and dance within a stage production.