Keith Pattison
"She's just a kid," or so runs the mantra that weaves its way through Spur of the Moment, the Royal Court premiere from newcomer Anya Reiss, who was "just a kid" - well, 17 - when she wrote the play. How, then, to explain an exceedingly sharp, smart piece that will invite comparison with another recent Court find, Polly Stenham, who was a comparative "oldie" by the time she pitched up at Sloane Square? As ever, it's nigh impossible to calibrate talent with numbers of years old, beyond pointing out that Reiss possesses the former in abundance even if she is self-evidently lacking in the latter. As the great Tom Lehrer once remarked, riffing on this very topic: "When Mozart was my age, he'd been dead five years." If this play and the director Jeremy Herrin's customarily expert treatment of it are any indication, Reiss has a long and happy playwriting career ahead.