Rehearsal images have been released for The Standard of Living, James Graham's new play about John Maynard Keynes, which begins previews at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 21 September with Rory Kinnear in the lead.
Rehearsal images have been released for The Standard of Living, the new play by James Graham that opens at the Theatre Royal Haymarket this month. Previews begin on Monday 21 September 2026, opening night is Tuesday 29 September, and the world premiere runs for a strict 12 weeks to Saturday 12 December.
The play takes on John Maynard Keynes - the economist and Bloomsbury Group member who drove the creation of arts funding in Britain and built a fairer financial model in the wake of the First World War. Nicholas Hytner directs, reuniting with the producers of Giant. Graham won an Olivier for Dear England and followed it with Punch, which travelled from Nottingham Playhouse to the Young Vic, the West End and Broadway.
Rory Kinnear plays Keynes. Opposite him, Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova makes her West End debut as Lydia Lopokova, the ballerina Keynes married, who danced as a soloist with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
They are joined by Thomas Flynn as Duncan Grant, Keynes' friend and lover; Laurie Kynaston as his economic rival Friedrich Hayek; Alex Blake as Clive Bell; Pip Carter as the writer Lytton Strachey; Agatha Enecio, making her professional stage debut, as the Bloomsbury artist Dora Carrington; Naomi Frederick as Virginia Woolf; Claire Price as Woolf's sister, the designer Vanessa Bell; and George Taylor as William Beveridge, the economist behind the Welfare State. Christopher Akrill, Luke Cinque-White, Dannie Norman, Xolisweh Ana Richards and Ben Warwick complete the company.
Set design is by Bob Crowley and costume design by Jenny Beavan, with movement direction by James Cousins, music by Frank Moon and Edward Watson as ballet consultant. Lighting is by Bruno Poet, sound by Carolyn Downing, projection by Luke Halls and casting by Robert Sterne CDG.
Two thousand £25 "Keynes Tickets" have been set aside in the stalls and dress circle for under-30s, on top of the thousands of £25 seats released across the run.
The Standard of Living runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from Monday 21 September to Saturday 12 December 2026.
