Renowned playwright James Graham, known for his explorations of British public life, is turning his attention to one of the 20th century's most significant political and economic figures: John Maynard Keynes. His new production, 'The Standard of Living', directed by Nicholas Hytner, is set to open at the Haymarket in September, promising a deep dive into Keynes's life from 1917 until his death in 1946. This period saw Keynes establish himself as the architect of modern macroeconomics, fundamentally reshaping governmental approaches to finance and the role of cultural institutions.
Rory Kinnear will embody Keynes, a man Graham describes as an 'outsider and a disruptor' whose ideas faced considerable resistance throughout his lifetime. Born in 1883, Keynes initially pursued mathematics at Cambridge before pivoting to economics. Following the devastating Great Depression of the 1930s, he developed a groundbreaking economic framework advocating for robust government intervention to shield citizens from the inherent instabilities of capitalism. His core argument was that governments should actively spend during economic crises, rather than passively awaiting market self-correction.
Keynes's passions extended beyond economics. A prominent member of the bohemian Bloomsbury Group, he openly lived as a bisexual man, and the play will explore his complex relationships within this artistic and literary circle, including his close friendship with Virginia Woolf and his relationship with painter Duncan Grant. Director Nicholas Hytner highlights Keynes as a 'radical' who championed the arts with the same vigour he applied to economic reform. The play will depict the tension between his intellectual and personal life, showing him often at odds with his Bloomsbury contemporaries who sometimes disapproved of his deep involvement at the highest levels of state, particularly within the Treasury during wartime.
His seminal work, 'The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money', published in 1936, sought solutions to the era's pervasive mass unemployment and was later voted the most influential academic text on British life in 2017. Keynesian principles are widely credited with underpinning Britain's post-war economic 'golden age', characterised by an average annual GDP-per-head growth of 2.44% between 1950 and 1973. His theories also provided the intellectual bedrock for Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies in the United States.
Despite his relationships with men, Keynes surprised many by marrying Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova, a star of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, in 1925 when he was 42. Duncan Grant served as his best man. In the play, Lopokova will be portrayed by Royal Ballet dancer Natalia Osipova. Keynes's sexuality and personal life were at times subject to public scrutiny, with some critics making unfounded remarks about his commitment to future generations. Graham's play will also feature intellectual rival Friedrich Hayek, who, despite their disagreements, described Keynes as 'the only really great man I ever knew'.
Both Graham and Hytner believe Keynes’s ideas retain significant resonance in contemporary society. Hytner suggests that current intractable problems often lead to a sense of paralysis, whereas Keynes embodied a spirit of radical action and confidence in the ability to tackle complex challenges head-on.
Source: The Guardian