James Graham’s The Standard of Living has split the critics down the middle at Theatre Royal Haymarket, with Rory Kinnear’s John Maynard Keynes winning over some reviewers and testing the patience of others.
The Standard of Living, James Graham’s new play about the economist John Maynard Keynes, opened at Theatre Royal Haymarket this week, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Rory Kinnear as Keynes and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova as his wife, the dancer Lydia Lopokova.
The verdict: Critics are genuinely split on Graham’s portrait of Keynes, with two reviews calling it a stimulating, big-hearted history play and two dismissing it as a dry, overstuffed lecture — though tellingly, even its admirers agree the Bloomsbury Group figures around its edges never quite come into focus.
Critics’ Comparison
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| The Telegraph | ★★★★☆ (4/5) | A stimulating, timely triumph, even if some of the supporting cast are thinly sketched |
| WhatsOnStage | ★★★★☆ | An unexpectedly romantic history play that makes economics genuinely moving |
| Financial Times | ★★★☆☆ | A witty, urgent tribute to Keynes that could use more of the economics it’s supposedly about |
| The Guardian | ★★★☆☆ | Beautifully acted and ravishing to look at, but too polished to find its subject’s emotional core |
| Time Out | ★★★☆☆ | Almost certainly the most enjoyable play about an economist ever written, but trying to do too much |
| The Times | ★★★☆☆ | An entertaining beginner’s guide to Keynes, let down by an unconvincing central romance |
| The Independent | ★★☆☆☆ | A pioneering economist reduced to a stodgy party-pooper |
| The Stage | ★★☆☆☆ | A colossal yawn from a writer capable of much better |
The reviews: what they loved about The Standard of Living
- Rory Kinnear’s Keynes. The play’s warmest reviews single out Kinnear’s performance directly. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish praised “a winningly clipped but charismatic star turn,” while WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton found his performance “full of both passion and wry humour.” The Guardian and the Financial Times were equally won over, both singling out Kinnear as the production’s most reliable pleasure even where they had reservations elsewhere.
- The Keynes-Hayek rooftop reunion. A wartime scene of the two economists meeting as fire wardens on the roof of King’s College Chapel is one of the few moments every positive review calls out by name. Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski called it simply “a superb scene,” and both the Telegraph and WhatsOnStage independently singled out the same moment as one of the production’s best.
The reviews: what fell flat for The Standard of Living
- The Bloomsbury set never quite comes into focus. This is the one criticism that crosses the entire star range. Even the Telegraph’s four-star review admits the likes of Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey are “only sketchily drawn,” and the Independent’s Alice Saville went further, calling Graham’s take on the group “weirdly prissy and unlikeable.”
- A play trying to cover too much ground. Several critics felt Graham had taken on more than one play could hold. Time Out concluded “he almost has too much to say,” and The Stage’s Sam Marlowe was blunter still, opening with the verdict that the play simply “doesn’t add up” and the Financial Times made a similar case, finding “the episodic structure becomes unwieldy.”
- The central romance doesn’t quite convince. This is a criticism of the performances themselves, not just the writing. The Times’s Dominic Maxwell felt “Kinnear struggles to convince as Keynes the offbeat loverman,” and found Osipova’s stage debut landed less convincingly than her dancing. It’s an assessment the Independent’s and Stage’s harsher reviews implicitly share, both finding Kinnear’s Keynes easier to admire intellectually than to warm to personally.
The back story
The Standard of Living began life as James Graham’s tribute to Keynes on Radio 4’s Great Lives, recorded mid-pandemic. It traces Keynes from his objections to the punitive Treaty of Versailles after the First World War, through the Bloomsbury Group and his marriage to Lydia Lopokova, to his role establishing the IMF, the World Bank and the Arts Council after the Second World War, the same body that still funds British theatre today.
The cast includes:
- John Maynard Keynes: Rory Kinnear
- Lydia Lopokova: Natalia Osipova
- Duncan Grant: Thomas Flynn
- Friedrich Hayek: Laurie Kynaston
- Lytton Strachey: Pip Carter
- Virginia Woolf: Naomi Frederick
- Vanessa Bell: Claire Price
The creative team includes
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, with set design by Bob Crowley, projection design by Luke Halls, costume design by Jenny Beavan, movement direction by James Cousins and Edward Watson, lighting by Bruno Poet, sound by Carolyn Downing, and music by Frank Moon.
Where to see The Standard of Living
- Venue: Theatre Royal Haymarket, until 12 December 2026
- Running time: 150 minutes
- Full details on The Standard of Living
What are the critics saying about The Standard of Living?
"With slick direction from Nicholas Hytner, a winningly clipped but charismatic star turn from Rory Kinnear as the suited and sainted “father of macroeconomics”,...it’s incredibly timely. "
"The Standard of Living is a homage to John Maynard Keynes that combines entertainment value (for starters, gags about how you pronounce his name) with a stimulating survey of the Cambridge economist’s life, times and interventionist ideas."
"The evening weaves the personal and political, as Keynes did."
"An entrancing 'straight' debut from Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova."
"This is a play full of the bewitching power of hope."
"But by and large, Graham’s great achievement is to make the words jump up from the page, just as Osipova as Lopokova dances through the action"
"The dialogue is often very funny, and Kinnear’s masterful performance is full of both passion and wry humour"
"Economics becomes positively sexy."
"An unforgettable portrait of a man who bestrode his times."
"It is still pretty damn good: nobody brings the past to life with the verve of Graham. It is, to be fair, almost certainly the most enjoyable play about an economist ever written. "
"Describing the plays of James Graham as ‘history podcast theatre’ would be mean and inaccurate but also a bit true."
"The Standard of Living isn’t quite Graham at his best dramatically"
"It’s no classic. Graham hasn’t found the form to turn so much content into a drama with a compelling hook."
"The great Hytner often just seems to be doing his best to keep a large cast organised (and sometimes dancing"
"Graham is out to show that economics and emotions can and must coexist, but it’s a big ask for a fine squad of actors"
"The contained Kinnear struggles to convince as Keynes the offbeat loverman."
"Kinnear excels, however, as Keynes the man arguing against the laissez-faire economics that dominated, Keynes the godfather of the welfare state."
"Played with equal amounts of old-school reserve, and charm."
"Little short of ravishing."
"Cleverly crafted dialogue."
"A nod to today."
"The Standard of Living will prove to be anything but dry"
"It’s a play about art, about action, about hope. So, what’s curiously frustrating is that it could actually afford to spend more time on the economic arguments at its core."
"Some of the play feels overly diffuse."
"Kinnear beautifully conveys the contrast between his character’s buttoned-up exterior and his buzzing, creative mind"
"it's unfortunate on multiple levels that James Graham’s play about a pioneering economist is about as dull as a pessimistic audience member might fear"
"Rory Kinnear plays the central role of Lord Maynard Keynes... like he’s someone’s grumpy dad, bankrolling their lifestyles and bringing down the mood at their parties."
"Graham makes these famous bohemians weirdly prissy and unlikeable, which might well be historically accurate... but doesn’t make their scenes all that fun to watch. "
"Osipova delivering a vivacious performance"
"A colossal yawn."
"James Graham is notoriously unafraid of big, gristly subject matter – yet his new work about the seminal economist John Maynard Keynes doesn’t add up."
"Nicholas Hytner’s production is uncharacteristically stolid and sterile"
"Even the reliably engaging Rory Kinnear struggles to make much out of a version of Keynes that stubbornly refuses to shift into focus."
"Uninspired set."
"Kinnear manages to generate minimal warmth.... And Osipova hams her way gamely through her portrayal of the outspoken Lopokova"
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
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