Although the plays of the cycle are not strictly connected to the degree of a serial story, some characters appear (at various ages) in more than one of the cycle's plays. Children of characters in earlier plays may appear in later plays. The character most frequently mentioned in the cycle is Aunt Ester, a "washer of souls". She is reported to be 285 years old in "Gem of the Ocean", which takes place in her home at 1839 Wylie Avenue, and 322 in "Two Trains Running". She dies in 1985, during the events of "King Hedley II". Much of the action of "Radio Golf" revolves around the plan to demolish and redevelop that house, some years after her death. Aunt Ester is a symbolic and recurring figure that represents the African American struggle. She is "not literally three centuries old but a succession of folk priestesses... he embodies a weighty history of tragedy and triumph".The plays often include an "apparently" mentally impaired oracular character (different in each play)—for example, Hedley Sr. in "Seven Guitars", Gabriel in "Fences", Stool Pigeon in "King Hedley II", or Hambone in "Two Trains Running".