The Standard of Living at Theatre Royal Haymarket

This play by James Graham concerns the life of John Maynard Keynes (Pronounced Kaynes!). Who would have thought a production about an economist could be so entertaining and amusing! This was the West End trip for the theatre group in October. 

Rory Kinnear is fantastic as the bi-sexual economist and writer Keynes and Xolisweh Ana Richards (understudy) excellent as his outspoken Russian ballerina wife, Lydia Lopokova. The rest of the cast, most of whom portraying the colourful members of the Bloomsbury Set of which Keynes was a part, are proficient, but in my opinion seem to blend into the background which considering what big characters they were in their own right seems a shame. 

The set is strikingly good, using panels coming in and out from the sides of the stage and up and down from the top to depict different scenes, sometimes painted and sometimes with film projected onto them (see image below). 

As we were leaving the theatre I heard many enthusiastically positive comments from members of our group and of course we, as a theatre group, should be grateful to this man who apart from other achievements was a driving force in obtaining funding for The Arts.

Contributed by Pat Ward