NICO
"You think about the tiny, practically nonexistent
space you occupy in this immense and overpopulated
world, in the middle of nowhere."
Like all of the characters in this play, we don't know much about Nico. Here are a few clues:
1. Nico is a dreamer. She loves to watch movies that let her imagination run wild; stories about people going on fantastical adventures, whether around the corner, around the world, or in a made-up world. Click a photo below!
2. Her coworkers are taking advantage of her. At 12 PM, Nico looks on at people laughing at a meeting that she wasn't invited to, but for which she created a presentation. This is textbook plagiarism, and possibly manipulation, in the workplace. Whoever this "stronger person" is, they are not only taking credit for Nico's work, but making Nico feel incompetent and powerless in the process. Or did she already feel that way?
"Wow... I feel appreciated, and, very strange, I don’t even feel guilty!"
“The office food chain works like this: the strong tell the weak to do things for them. The weaker the person—this is you—the better the work she does.”
“Click,
click,
click.
You could do this for hours.
It relaxes you."
3. She finds comfort in orderly systems. Chapdelaine describes Nico as "normally obsessive", conveying that strict routine is, well, routine for her. This is a fairly common human experience (all the moreso during the pandemic). When the world seems outside of our control, we may try to control the miniscule things in our daily lives as a coping mechanism. For Nico, this manifests as lists! lists! and more lists!
“You look at each item, consider every thing, but you remain faithful to your precious list.”
minestrone
Nico starts her day by preparing minestrone, a thick vegetable soup in Italian cuisine, often accompanied by rice or pasta, and served with grated Parmesan. Even her cooking is on a strict schedule! After carefully calculating the cook time, she jets off as if the day is an actual race: "On your marks, get set, go!"
whosdatedwho.com
You can access whosdatedwho.com here, but beware of lots of pop-up ads. Can you copy Nico's loop all the way from Drew Barrymore to Edward Norton?
origami
Nico folds an origami unicorn, so here are some tutorials:
a) This tutorial is silent and the unicorn is sleek & fancy.
b) This tutorial has verbal instructions and the unicorn is cute & stubby.
c) This tutorial is silent and the unicorn's horn is made separately.