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“Many of you are feeling daunted by this subject matter…” So says Rory Kinnear’s John Maynard Keynes at the start of James Graham’s joyfully Stoppardian if overstuffed new play about economics, art, sexuality and how to live a good life. Crunching complex 20th century financial theories and Bloomsbury aesthetics in a way that speak to Britain today, it features a lot of exposition and narrative shortcuts. (“This report, Beveridge… I don’t know what to say.”)
But I loved the sweep and brio of it, the epigrammatic wit and the zing of ideas, the compassion and love of human life that underpins a play that’s about worth not value. Nicholas Hytner’s sparely staged production features a stealthily compelling central performance from Kinnear as Keynes, magnetic though socially awkward and stiffly academic. Former Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova reveals ravishing comic timing - as well as faultless turns and leaps in dance interludes - as Lydia Lopokova, the Russian ballerina he improbably married.
