The reviews are in for The Standard of Living, James Graham’s new play about the economist John Maynard Keynes, which opened at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 29 September. Nicholas Hytner directs Rory Kinnear as Keynes, with Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova making her acting debut as the dancer Lydia Lopokova. The critics are generous about Kinnear and about Bob Crowley’s sliding, art-filled set, and most enjoy Osipova’s comic timing. They part company over the writing: Libby Purves and Sarah Crompton come out elated, while Time Out, The Reviews Hub and West End Best Friend all feel Graham has crammed the Bloomsbury set, the duel with Laurie Kynaston’s Hayek and a case for the arts into one evening, and The Stage and The Independent find it stilted and dull.
The verdict: sixteen reviews in so far. Twelve carry a rating we could read: one five-star notice, four four-star, five three-star and two two-star, an average of 3.3 out of 5. London Unattached publishes no rating, and The Times, The Telegraph and the Financial Times sit behind paywalls. Almost everyone warms to Rory Kinnear’s Keynes; what divides them is whether James Graham has tried to fit three plays into one.
What are critics saying about The Standard of Living?
Theatrecat
Reviewer: Libby Purves
"And Rory Kinnear is a marvel, creating an instant likeability in Keynes and showing, beneath the weskit and watch-chain of Edwardian respectability, a banked fire of childlike fervour for the cause of ordinary people’s entitlement to “a good life” whatever that means to them. He is hot with indignation at the willingness of laissez-faire market-economics in government to condemn millions to miserable squalor in the hope that everything balances itself out in the end . “People only have one life!”. His duels with Laurie Kynaston’s crunchy little Hayek, once a disciple then a hawk of brutal austerity , are wonderful. And if it is not quite true that in the Blitz they once found themselves together on ARP night-shifts, it should be."
WhatsOnStage
Reviewer: Sarah Crompton
"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, bringing colour and life to a monochrome world. He has a gift for making the past vital. The dialogue is often very funny, and Kinnear’s masterful performance is full of both passion and wry humour, with a gentle way of pausing just before he delivers a thought, or a put-down."
LondonTheatre.co.uk
"economics, bohemians, and a passionate case for the value of art"
Reviewer: Marianka Swain
"The potent resonance of this historical drama becomes all too clear as Keynes articulates the danger of leaving a vacuum for populist demagogues proffering easy solutions to desperate people. This is also a passionate and much-needed argument for the value of culture: economic, social, emotional, and spiritual (Keynes founded a theatre in Cambridge as well as the Arts Council). That, both Keynes and Graham rightly proclaim, is vital for a good life."
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Sophie Luck
"The Standard of Living is incredibly engaging and educational, but Graham tries to accomplish a little too much. He makes strong but subtle enough arguments for spending out of an economy, embracing culture and approaching people, and problems with imagination; but the play could have had more impact if it focused on just one. Perhaps Graham was intending to create a biography of Keynes, but he has had greater success previously homing in on a more condensed subject. There are pieces of information sprinkled throughout the play such as Duncan Grant being the father of Vanessa Bell’s daughter but not her husband, and Keynes’ founding of the Arts Theatre in Cambridge and the Arts Council. These are fascinating titbits but are skimmed over and superfluous to the central economic narrative."
London Box Office
Reviewer: Stuart King
"In all, quite a challenging life to put onto stage but Graham has managed to elevate a mere sequence of historical milestones into something far more engaging and playful, brought to life by a terrific ensemble and a confident and astute central performance from the ever-watchable Kinnear."
The Guardian
"Rory Kinnear has bags of charm as Bloomsbury economist Keynes"
Reviewer: Arifa Akbar
"Kinnear is never any less than lovable in the role, yet you never quite get beyond the three-piece suited exterior. Despite his presence in almost every scene, his emotional life remains sealed off. Maybe that is as it should be: a free, rebellious spirit who infused economics with imagination but looked like a “tax man”, in the snide words of Strachey. Keynes’s bohemianism is hiding inside the carapace of capitalism."
Time Out
"Almost certainly the most enjoyable play about an economist ever written"
Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski
"Director Nicholas Hytner doesn’t bring the sort of pell-mell energy that’s served Graham’s collaborations with Rupert Goold and Jeremy Herrin so well. But The Standard of Living isn’t that sort of play – there’s a minimum of winky fourth-wall breaking – and his production has a graceful pace matched by a projected set (from designer Bob Crowley and projection designer Luke Halls) that’s dazzlingly awash with the most vibrant art of the era."
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Aliya Al-Hassan
"Rory Kinnear is never less than utterly engaging as Keynes, operating with ease and charm, but also intense frustration that he won't be listened to. "What is a good life?" he asks repeatedly and we understand his quest for art and culture to nourish people's lives, even if we do not agree with his economics."
The Reviews Hub
Reviewer: Maryam Philpott
"Act Two fares better as Keynes finally interacts at length with the excellent Laurie Kynaston’s Austrian economist Hayek and, like Best of Enemies, offers two contrasting points of view on economic policies that could have provided an alternative structure for the play. Here the action begins to ascend as Kynaston and Rory Kinnear’s charismatic Keynes interact in much longer scenes, battling ideas and their two economic traditions, as political, military and collaborative failures dog European countries across the century. Giving these characters more time to debate in public and private would offer more insight into Hayek as Keynes’ relief, leading to a more substantial story about the grounding of our economic system."
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Daz Gale
"Where The Standard of Living never drops, however, is in its remarkable cast. The lead role of John Maynard Keynes is wonderfully taken on by Rory Kinnear, who charms with confidence as the trailblazing and occasionally arrogant economist. Kinnear’s stage presence ensures he dominates even at times where stronger writing for other people on stage with him threaten to eclipse him, showcasing various sides to Keynes’ personality. There are flashes of warmth and the spirit that motivates every choice in his story, namely the recurring question of what is a good life? A determination and refusal to consider other views gives Kinnear plenty to sink his teeth into in what can only be described as a solid gold performance."
The Independent
"We owe John Maynard Keynes a debt of gratitude, but this stuffy play doesn’t pay it off"
Reviewer: Alice Saville
"This is a play of ideas, but unlike Tom Stoppard’s brilliant, recently revived Arcadia, it can’t turn the abstract territory of maths and logic into something richly emotive. The closest it comes to touching your heart is in the final scenes, depicting how Keynes laid the foundation for a Britain where everyone could access the arts. We all owe him a debt of gratitude, but this play probably isn’t the way to pay it."
London Unattached
"The Cost of Happiness"
Reviewer: Dr Adrian York
"It is Natalia Osipova’s performance as Lydia Lopokova that is central to the play’s success, and it’s difficult to think of anyone else who could be cast in the part. Her ballet dancing is glorious, conjuring up the wild spirit of the Ballets Russes as she embodies Diaghilev’s Firebird, but she is as happy tangoing and jitterbugging across the stage. She can also act, disrupting the snobbish Bohemianism of the Bloomsbury clique with her bluntness and joie de vivre. It’s a terrific performance that counterpoints the stuffy economics and the solipsistic upper middle-class neuroses of the Bloomsbury set."
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Sam Marlowe, two stars, "Clumsy and pedestrian"), The Times ("The Standard of Living review — economics, gay sex and Virginia Woolf"), the Financial Times ("Keynes’ radical optimism drives James Graham’s unwieldy new play") and The Telegraph, whose reviews sit behind paywalls.
Production photographs by Manuel Harlan.
For a first look at the staging, see our production images from The Standard of Living, and for more of this week’s verdicts, read our roundups of Tru at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Table 17 at the Kiln Theatre.
The Standard of Living is booking at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 12 December 2026.
