The first production photos are in for The Standard of Living, James Graham’s new play about the economist John Maynard Keynes, starring Olivier winner Rory Kinnear and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova in her West End debut.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, The Standard of Living imagines the private world of Keynes, the economist whose ideas helped rebuild Britain after the First World War. Kinnear plays Keynes opposite Osipova as his wife, the ballerina Lydia Lopokova, with Thomas Flynn as Keynes’ lover Duncan Grant, Laurie Kynaston as his rival Friedrich Hayek, and a cast including Naomi Frederick as Virginia Woolf.
The play is now in previews at the Theatre Royal Haymarket ahead of opening night on Tuesday 29 September, and runs for a strict twelve-week season until 12 December.
View live availability for The Standard of Living here
Photos: Rory Kinnear and Natalia Osipova in The Standard of Living
A Bloomsbury love triangle, staged
Keynes’ story here isn’t the one economics students learn. He’s married to Lopokova, the ballerina and Ballets Russes soloist Osipova now plays in her first West End role, while carrying on a relationship with the painter Duncan Grant. Around them circles the real Bloomsbury Group: Woolf, the critic Lytton Strachey, and the painter Vanessa Bell.
It’s the human drama behind the economic theory that James Graham, who won an Olivier for Dear England, has chosen to dramatise, and it gives the play a very different register to the history-lesson version of Keynes most audiences expect.
Plan your visit to The Standard of Living
- Theatre: Theatre Royal Haymarket
- Booking dates: Previews from 21 September 2026; opening night Tuesday 29 September; final performance 12 December 2026
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
Related News
Pillion and Punch among the big winners at the Sky Arts Awards 2026
James Graham turned 1970s parliamentary procedure into a hit play. Now he’s doing the same for an economist, a BBC drama and a Danny Boyle film, all at once
West End top picks & new London shows in October 2026
Little Dancer at Theatre Royal Haymarket announced, with ballet star Tiler Peck making her West End debut
Latest News
Everything you need to know about The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal in London
Nina Raine’s sweeping new adaptation of Middlemarch arrives at the RSC: See brand-new images from the production
What to expect from Pride the Musical ahead of highly anticipated transfer to the Bridge Theatre
