James Graham’s new play is a biography of John Maynard Keynes, known as ‘Mennid’ to his friends, which feels like a visit to a stately home. Mennid narrates the show and introduces us to the main events and personalities of his life but he doesn’t get involved.

This is a eulogy, not a drama. He’s a civilised oddball, a highly polished introvert, a maths geek with a saviour complex. His mission is to rescue Britain from the Great Depression by increasing the national debt and blowing the loans on railways and power stations. He uses his lectures to tell a fairy tale about a mythical traveller who finds a dying village and revives its economy by spending £1 in the local tavern. With this children’s yarn, he persuades the Labour party to adopt a borrow-and-squander policy which it has never quite abandoned. No asset is safe from his piracy, not even Granny’s nest egg. ‘Money in savings is asleep,’ he says. ‘Money spent is alive.’

James Graham is showing some of the faults of David Hare

James Graham is showing some of the faults of David Hare

His inner life remains a mystery. And the puzzles mount up as the play develops. He was a sex addict who enjoyed seducing gay men in lavatories and at conferences and he even kept........

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