An Interview with Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen

A sharp-witted, high-energy, apocalyptic, anti-romcom solo-play is coming to Edinburgh. The Mumble got the inside track…

Hello, so where are you from & where do you reside these days?
Hi Mumble! I’m from New York City, I was born and raised here. I still live in Brooklyn, and I honestly never see myself moving. Like the cockroaches, I’ll still be in NYC after the apocalypse. It’s my place.

Who inspir’d you artistically, growing up?
As corny as this sounds: my dad is an artist and growing up he seemed extremely happy because he was able to do what he loved for a living. I’ve been inspired by his outlook for as long as I can remember. I’ve also always been big into 1960s film hams. I love Zero Mostel and Peter Sellers (not from the 1960’s but also the Marx Brothers) and I remember I wanted to do big crazy comedies like The Producers, After the Fox and Duck Soup. I would watch these movies over and over again and try to emulate these homely male comedians as a little girl, and those moments feel extremely formative.

How did you get into acting, & why are you still so keen?
I was a loud and outgoing child, so my parents always stuck me in theatre camps and after-school programs, I enjoyed them. I did a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at my sleep away camp at thirteen, and I got a bigger part than I ever had before. I ate that shit up. I was in total flow state — making the other girls shriek with laughter, it felt really powerful. Campers were coming up to me after the performance for weeks telling me how much they loved it. Acting was the first thing I ever felt good at. And now, as a working actor—doing everything from solo theatre to developing new work through opportunities like Tribeca Film Festival’s N.O.W. creator’s market—it’s still about chasing that same flow. It happens rarely, but when it does, it makes all the hard parts of being an actor totally worth it.

You’re debuting a show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, can you tell us all about it?
Hell yeah I can! My show, apocalyptic, anti-rom-com, Horny for the End of the World, is about Gen Z, pick me Ebeth, who gets dumped by the man of her dreams the day before everyone realizes the world’s ending. With the two weeks Ebeth has left to live, instead of doing anything positive with the time she has left, she simply obsesses about this man who ghosted her. While this is happening her repellent exes are sliding into her DMs with their gaslighting, thirst traps and flaccid dick pics, attempting to use her for a final hook up. This leads Ebeth on a journey of accidental philosophical growth and unintentional self reflection, gaining a shred of clarity just before the lights go out.

How do you think your show will go down with audiences this side of the pond?
I think it’ll go over well, spiraling is universal. I worry about a couple jokes that are a bit Americana. But I think “New Jersey is lame” is a concept everyone can get behind.

Where, when, how & why did you first get the idea for the show?
So… I was dumped right before the pandemic lockdown. I like to think I’m a little more self aware than Ebeth, my delusional anti-heroine. But I was spiraling very hard. This dude was a total loser. I didn’t even respect him. And the whole world was going through this very scary time where we didn’t have any answers. I was like, “is this it? Is this the end?” But all I could think about was this guy, who to this day I can’t even remember why I started dating. I was helpless to my feelings. I could not stop obsessing about this boy that didn’t care about me, even though I knew there were more important things to think about. Horny for the End of the World was born out of me dealing with intense hardship in a stupid and shallow way. But, in a way I think is deeply human and weirdly relatable. I see other people do it all the time.

Can you describe the writing process, from start to ‘almost at Edinburgh’?
It’s been a journey. I wrote basically the whole thing (the bones of it) in the first three months of the lock down as a piece of theater, but then as soon as I wrote I was like, “when is theater happening again?” So I turned it into a short film, as we were shooting it, theaters started opening up again, because … of course they would. I put the whole thing on hiatus for a while. Then my director and collaborator Musa Gurnis helped me dig it up and find a venue last year. I did a lot of fine tuning and joke adjustments during our rehearsal period, for most of which Musa was violently ill. Testing jokes on a sick person will make you 1000% tougher because they give you nothing, and whenever you get some kind of reaction out of them, you have to stop because it triggers their gag reflex. Since the initial write, it’s just been tweaks, but it never ceases to amaze me how you can tweak something for forever.

Can you sum up Horny for the End of the World in a single sentence?
An out of touch sorority girl throws an apocalypse party for the general public.

Can you sum it up in a single word?
Femme-pocalypse? Does that count as two words?

What else will you be up to in Edinburgh when you’re not performing or promoting your show?
Meeting other artists, seeing shows, making friends, drinking at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall bar. But most importantly — eating cake with our friends at Laila Edinburgh (Ebeth would be there for the gram, but I am fully in it for the dessert).

What will you & HORNY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD be doing for the rest of 2025?
Hopefully going on tour! The dream is to take Horny for the End of the World on a college tour through the US, UK, and Canada—where I can reach my ideal audience: young women who’ve been screwed over by men and pick-me culture. That said, I think the show has a broader appeal. People love to distract themselves from the painful, unbearable parts of life, and that goes way deeper than gender or age. I’m also developing Horny for the End of the World into a limited series, where each episode centers on a different toxic ex.

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