Making the case for state investment

MARY CONWAY is uplifted by the timeliness and panache of a new play that seeks to place the influential ideas of John Maynard Keynes on stage

Interview / 2 October 2026 ‘Community spirit is essential to defeat racism and fascism, and music must create it’ 2 October 2026 Ahead of this Sunday’s concert commemorating the Battle of Cable Street, Chris Searle speaks to trumpeter CLAUDE DEPPA, pioneer member of the Grand Union Orchestra

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a science-based case for optimism, with positive examples of positive ecological adaptation

WILL PODMORE welcomes a strategy that takes us well beyond Labour’s contradictory and limited ambitions for Britain’s future

PAUL DONOVAN welcomes Brown's embrace of active social citizenry and a multipolar world. But what about Corbyn, Gordon?

GAVIN O’TOOLE is chilled by astounding reportage of Donald Trump’s first year in office, and its deployment of retribution as spectacle

MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, The Weight, The Portuguese House, and Child

YET again prolific playwright, James Graham — self-styled chronicler of our times — sees another new work premiere in a major theatre. Yet again he fixes on a real scenario from the near past and uses it to illuminate our present.

His subject, this time, is the economist John Maynard Keynes: his proclivities, his dreams, his longings and — of course — his brilliant ideas. In particular, it is his fierce condemnation of the free market, and equally vehement advocacy of government investment in the common good, that resonates with us today.

To Maynard (as he was known), a government’s job, even — or perhaps especially — when in debt and national crisis, is to reduce suffering and cultivate happiness in its people. “I love people,” he declares, and on this basis urges fiscal management and expenditure to fund not only jobs, welfare and a comprehensive health service, but also culture and the arts in all their uplifting forms.

Reckless sentimentality, you might think. But as a mathematical genius, Maynard backs up his passion with complex figures and overpowering formulae. Putting money in people’s pockets, he demonstrates, gives them spending power; it lifts suffering from their lives and renders them active in society. It also engenders spending, adds value, stimulates a dynamic economy and truly creates that elusive commodity we hear so much about today: “growth.”

And the play shares with us the man’s own bid for happiness: his plentiful gay encounters, his deep friendship with the elite Bloomsbury group, his love of beauty and the arts, his creation of the Arts Council, and finally his astonishing, lasting, love marriage to Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova.

To us now, Maynard — in his conventional, uptight suit and the essential loneliness of genius — makes our hearts sing with his ideas and human regard.  

And the production values and casting enhance this sense of heady hope.

Rory Kinnear is simply splendid as Maynard, his easy, warm, natural audience rapport captivating us from his opening speech. Royal Ballet principal ballerina Natalia Osipova, making her acting debut, is a mesmerising character who infuses the production with beauty as she dances. And Nicholas Hytner directs with the marvellous assurance and panache that only he can muster.

Bob Crowley’s superb, fast-transitioning sets capture the heightened artistic vision of Maynard and his consciously cultured friends and we progress from naturalism to choreographed aestheticism and back again with barely a pause.

Laurie Kynaston makes for a strong challenge to Maynard in his portrayal of the earnest free-market proponent Friedrich Hayek and there is powerful casting of the somewhat arrogant, self-regarding Bloomsbury group.

Graham’s play, though, is oddly flawed, despite its moment-by-moment entertaining style and humour. It opens with tantalising promise but, over time, dramatically stagnates. Maynard — despite the excellent performance and numerous life events — emerges as the same man at the end of the play as he was at the beginning.  

Basking in these ideas, though, is uplifting, with the playwright’s timing typically well-judged. And the talent on offer thrills.

So … a good night out even if, ultimately, a masterpiece missed.

Runs at Theatre Royal, Haymarket until December 12. Box Office: 020 7930 8800, trh.co.uk

Theatre Review / 14 September 2026 Fire Fire: activism in the face of climate devastation 14 September 2026 MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script

Theatre review / 27 August 2026 The end of the world as he knows it 27 August 2026 MARY CONWAY admires a brave and topical study of Armageddon that is, unfortunately, unable to come to a conclusion

Theatre Review / 11 February 2026 A glimpse of greatness in Arcadia 11 February 2026 MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class

Theatre Review / 19 December 2025 A fitting memorial for Tom Stoppard 19 December 2025 Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY