Rory Kinnear and Natalia Osipova will be joined by Thomas Flynn, Laurie Kynaston and Pip Carter in the world premiere of The Standard of Living, a new play by James Graham coming to Theatre Royal Haymarket in September.
Kinnear is John Maynard Keynes, the radical economist and member of the influential Bloomsbury Group who became the singular driving force behind arts funding in Britain and built a new and fairer financial model, that ultimately helped reshape the Western World in the aftermath of the First World War.
Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova makes her West End debut as the celebrated ballet dancer Lydia Lopokova, a soloist with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes who was considered the embodiment of the new era of modernist ballet.
Flynn is Keynes’ friend and lover Duncan Grant; Kynaston is Keynes’ great economic rival Friedrich Hayek; and Pip Carter is writer and critic Lytton Strachey.
The cast also includes Agatha Enecio, who makes her professional stage debut as Bloomsbury group artist Dora Carrington; Naomi Frederick as one of the 20th centuries leading writers, Virginia Woolf; Claire Price as designer and Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell; and George Taylor as economist and father of the Welfare State, William Beveridge.
Completing the cast in the wider ensemble are Christopher Akrill, Luke Cinque-White Dannie Norman, Xolisweh Ana Richards and Ben Warwick.
Can you put a price on happiness, beauty and love?
Husband to ballerina Lydia Lopokova. Lover to Duncan Grant. Friend to Virginia Woolf. Keynes moves between the corridors of power in Whitehall and the intoxicating freedom of a radical circle of artists, writers and lovers – all determined to live differently.
But as markets crash, old systems crumble and Britain teeters on the edge of chaos, one question begins to consume him: What is a good life?
Can art, love and human connection reshape the future before it’s too late? Or is the world too addicted to wealth and power to change?
Alive with music, dance, desire and debate, The Standard of Living is a thrilling, funny and deeply moving portrait of a man who dared to imagine something better.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, the play features set design by Bob Crowley and costume design by Jenny Beavan. The movement director is James Cousins, the composer is Frank Moon and the ballet consultant is Edward Watson. The lighting designer is Bruno Poet, the sound designer is Carolyn Downing, the projection designer is Luke Halls, the casting director is Robert Sterne, props supervisor is Lily Mollgaard, costume supervisor is Poppy Halls, the vocal coach is Jeanette Nelson and the assistant director is Anastasia Bunce.
The Standard of Living will be produced in the West End by Brian & Dayna Lee and Nicholas Hytner with Len Blavatnik & Danny Cohen for Access Entertainment and Ramin Sabi. Mark Rubinstein is Executive Producer and General Management is by Short Street Productions.
It will run for 12 weeks at Theatre Royal Haymarket, with previews beginning September 21 and opening night on September 29.
Tickets here.
Top image: The Standard of Living artwork (image supplied)