Royal Ballet Principal dancer Natalia Osipova will make her West End debut as Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova in The Standard of Living, a new play by James Graham based on the life of John Maynard Keynes.
Lopokova was a celebrated dancer with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and was considered the embodiment of the new era of modernist ballet.
“Lydia Lopokova was a pivotal figure in ballet history, “ said Osipova, “Bridging Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes and the development of British ballet last century, and I can’t wait to explore her character.”
Rory Kinnear stars as radical economist and member of the Bloomsbury group, John Maynard Keynes, husband to Lydia Lopokova, lover to Duncan Grant and friend of Virginia Woolf.
He was regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers. Keynes became the 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.
Keynes and Lopokova were also instrumental in establishing British Ballet, setting up The Camargo Society, which supported the early careers of British dance pioneers Ninette de Valois, Marie Rambert and Frederick Ashton. He was also instrumental in bringing the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, to the Royal Opera House in 1946.
Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said, “I’m thrilled that Natalia will be making her West End debut in The Standard of Living. She has excelled in many of our most powerful dramatic ballets and recently surprised audiences with the range of her acting ability in her dance theatre work.”
It is difficult to imagine a better creative team than director Nicholas Hytner and set designer Bob Crowley.
“I’ve followed James Graham’s brilliant career with admiration and excitement since I commissioned his breakout hit ‘This House’ for the National Theatre in 2012,” said Nicholas Hytner. “This wonderful play presses all my buttons so I couldn’t be happier to resume our collaboration, and to work again with the great Rory Kinnear, and to bring the astonishing Natalia Osipova to the West End.”
The Standard of Living will run for 12 weeks from 21 September to 12 December at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
During this period, Osipova will also perform her scheduled performances with The Royal Ballet of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, but has had to withdraw from MacMillan’s Song of The Earth, part of the Visionaries programme.
