Wow! Writers over the lofty age of, say, 20, will find themselves watching this and weeping with envy. Anya Reiss, an 18-year-old A-level student, has produced a debut drama of astounding accomplishment which casts a clinical eye over the battleground of the middle-class family as witnessed from a pre-teen’s point of view.

Max Jones’s skilful design does visually what Reiss’s words do aurally, bisecting an affluent family home. From this, we peer into rooms upstairs and down, and view the anguish and anger piling up like dead skin. Yet if Nick Evans (Kevin Doyle) and his wife Vicky (Sharon Small) could stop shouting at each other, they’d notice that their 12-year-old daughter Delilah (Shannon Tarbet) was increasingly taking refuge in the room, and affection, of their 21-year-old lodger Daniel (James McArdle). As expected, Reiss’s sympathy lies with youth, and the irony is that, while the “grown-ups” spout platitudes, Delilah is easily the most emotionally honest character.

The adults might frustrate her but Reiss has nailed with uncanny accuracy the patterns of adult rows, with their tedious trigger words and circular arguments.

It’s not only the writer making a sparkling debut in Jeremy Herrin’s gripping production. Tarbet, in her first stage role, is a revelation, sliding from the self-possession of a pre-Raphaelite model to a gauche girl who loves High School Musical. McArdle, who compellingly suggests a man conflicted and tempted, is in his final year at RADA. We’ll be hearing more of them all, starting with this year’s Most Promising Playwright awards.
Until 14 Aug. Information: 020 7565 5000, royalcourttheatre.com