HOWZAT

“I’ve always written, and love the way I feel when I write,” she says. “I don’t mean to sound like a tit, but when I write, I feel the clearest about things, and I understand things that

I didn’t before. I was encouraged by my father — he was very big on education, and thought it was really important to work hard so that I could have a good career and not rely on anyone else. I’ve got a mad work ethic. I believe very strongly in that.”

Cob also encouraged Polly’s love of theatre. From when she was eight or nine, they would often go to see some “pretty mental” plays together — “Stuff above a pub, a lot of it very inappropriate for eight-year-olds,” Polly remembers. Cob died of a heart attack just before That Face started its run at the Royal Court, a tragedy that was only marginally alleviated by the fact that he knew his daughter’s play had been accepted. The dedication in the programme reads: “For Cob, who’s watching from the gods. My favourite date, much missed, this one’s for you.”

“It really kept my feet on the ground during that period,” Stenham remembers. “The reaction to the play was really nice, but I didn’t get carried away with it. You know, my dad had just died. The two things balanced themselves out.”

She is enjoying Tusk Tusk as she should. For one thing, her personal life is much happier. Stenham lives in her father’s old house in Highgate, with four friends and her younger sister, Daisy, and is currently dating the actor Harry Treadaway, who has been performing at the Royal Court in Mark Ravenhill’s Over There. But she also feels that she has earned her playwriting spurs.

“The first play was, in many ways, so easy,” she says. “It felt like a massive blag. I wrote it in four months, I only did three or four drafts, and it all happened so quickly.

“With this one, it was so hard to write. It took 18 months, and 17 drafts. It was real blood, sweat and tears. I knew that I wanted to write about siblings, and I knew my characters, but

I didn’t stand back like an older writer would have done, and think, ‘What is the best way of dealing with these people and their situation?’ I just kept running and running at it like a demented pony.”

The results of Stenham’s labours are arresting. Not only has she created a locomotive drama, but she also delivers a fresh approach to theatre. She believes that plays work best when they feel “like a gig”, and both her pieces at the Royal Court are infused with contemporary music. Tusk Tusk, in particular, owes much to Radiohead’s magisterial In Rainbows. Stenham says her use of music is much more than filler.

“I listened to In Rainbows constantly while writing Tusk Tusk,” she says. “There’s a whole subplot in the play that is derived from a lyric, about an animal stuck in a hot car; and a line that Eliot delivers about a “Gucci pig” that is straight from Karma Police. I’m basically a massive Radiohead fan. There’s no bullshit with them, as artists. You never see them falling out of a crappy members’ club. I admire how they deal with things.”

Here, you may see a blueprint for Stenham’s future. “I’m quite a private person,” she says. “I think it’s important. That’s one of the cool things about being a writer, isn’t it? You’re behind the scenes. So, I don’t want to . . . I’m aware I’ve been very lucky. There are lots of people my age who have amazing degrees, who’ve just come out of university, and who can’t get a job. I’m doing something that I love.”

We finish our coffee, and Polly completes her absent-minded scrawling into the sofa. I can now see what she has written — “Polly”, scratched indelibly into the leather. She sees me looking, and suddenly realises what she has done. “Oh, shit, please help me hide it,” she cries, with a naughty-schoolgirl giggle. “I’m going to get into so much trouble.”

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