The world is going to end in two week’s time. It’s definitely happening, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. What do you do? Where do you spend your last two weeks of life? Who do you spend them with?
Horny For The End Of The World deals with one person’s approach to all of the above questions.
Ebeth (Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen), as she’s called by almost everyone, is going along fine. Then her boyfriend, Jeremy, dumps her. So she goes out for the night with her friends, does some recreational cocaine, and drowns her sorrows with her friends.
The next morning, as one heck of a hangover kicks in, her mother calls her. The world is ending.
Ebeth’s parents collect her from the city, and take her back to their house in suburban New Jersey. Apparently the quietness is disconcerting. There’s no riots, no fuss, just everyone accepting their fate.
All of Ebeth’s friends are coupling up, choosing to spend the end of the world having sex.
Ebeth’s phone starts beeping with notifications. A trail of ex-boyfriends are reaching out, asking Ebeth to spend the end of the world with them. Who should she choose?
What follows is a deconstruction of all of her past relationships, and what was wrong with all of the men. The number of flags each of them raises, and the colours of those flags, makes for an entertaining narrative.
The men are archetypes that we can all recognise. The rich one. The hot one. The porn addict. The one who waits too late to reach out.
The show is less about them, and more about Ebeth’s response to each of them. And to her growing realisation that maybe she’d prefer to be on her own.
There’s a moment where she questions that. One of her ex’s has a friend called Alice, who doesn’t want a relationship. The possibility that Alice might be aromantic, does not seem to occur to our confused protagonist.
It’s pretty clear that Ebeth’s been conditioned for probably her whole life to believe that she must be in a relationship with a man. That she should make them feel special. There’s a sudden moment of realisation of what Ebeth has settled for so far in her romantic relationships.
At the end, as the end of the world draws nearer, Hendricks-Tellefsen takes a moment to take the story wider. To touch upon how men and women are talked about differently in songs.
It’s an interesting moment of departure from Ebeth’s usual focus on the personal, and is all the more effective for that.
There’s some moderate audience involvement in the show, when she shares pictures of the various ‘boyfriends’. One of those is explicit, so do be aware of that.
Hendricks-Tellefsen is an engaging and warm performer. The script is funny, and careful thought has been given to every move Hendricks-Tellefsen makes on the stage.
A story of quiet feminism, and of realising truths about yourself, even when it seems like it might be too late.
Horny For The End Of The World continues at the Stephenson Theatre at The Space at Surgeon’s Hall, at 23:15 on August 16, then at 23:30 daily from August 18 to 22
Featured Image courtesy of Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen. Photo by Shelby Alayne Antel
