Watching the play Ride the Cyclone I was reminded of the play Forever Plaid. In both plays a musical group dies suddenly in an accident and has an after-life experience. In Forever Plaid a musical quartet circa early 1960s is driving to their big concert and is hit by a bus full of Beatles fans. After life they perform their concert.
Ride the Cyclone, I figured, was the modern version, with modern characters (choir group) who do modern things like question their sexual identities. The play is modern in this way and, to my surprise, quite astrologically modern too!
Ah, about time! The younger folks are getting astrology. I’m still on the earth. It’s a joy.
[Spoiler alert: below are descriptions of characters but no detail on plot or ending.]
Characters
We meet our choir group characters after they’ve lost their lives on a roller coaster called The Cyclone. As each of the six character’s life is reviewed, we learn his/her astrological sign.
Ocean
The first character whose life is revealed – an ambitious girl named Ocean – was appropriately assigned Capricorn, born December 22 in the very early degrees of the sign. Her first song (song list can be accessed from link above) is Life is Getting Better Every Day, a reference to her desire for Capricorn for continuous improvement for the climb up the ladder of success.
Success and its feared opposite – failure – is addressed in her second song Thank God I’m Not You where she measures her successes against the low-standard career expectations she has for her friends. Her friends, as expected, don’t appreciate this. Welcome to Capricorn snobbery.
Noel
Born March 5, Noel the second character up for life review, is a Pisces. While I thought Ocean’s Capricorn ambition was an accidental assignment, by the end of Noel’s revealing of inner fantasy I realized, “Wow, this is really accurate. Poetically so.”
Poetic and feeling equals Pisces. Noel we learn is homosexual and not able to express his yearnings in his small, remote town. His secret dreams are from La Vie Boheme (modern: Rent) and involve a dissolute street life in Paris (I think) wearing women’s black lacey undergarments while serving a customer.
Who would dream of that?
In real life, this not so pretty. In a Pisces imaginative life or reading about the Parisian artists of the 18th and 19th century a hundred years later, this artistic life of colorful characters, 148 proof absinthe and abject poverty can seem romantic.
Noel sings Bad Romance and a French Edith Piaf song that translates into I don’t have any regrets. For sad, short-lived, unfulfilled Pisces Noel, he doesn’t have anything to regret, regretfully.
Mischa
Next up, Mischa the Ukrainian who feels two things: anger and passion. He’s a Leo (August 18) – no surprise. Donning his hip-hop, rock star persona, he was full on center-of-attention Leo.
Our actor who played Mischa was very, very Leo – the sign of the actor. As such, I developed the common short-term theater affliction of having a crush on him. It happens all the time. They don’t know about it. Hurts no one.
Somewhere in Micha’s song and expressions he notes something to the effect that he hides his true, tender feelings behind the hip-hop persona. Leo rarely expresses the insecurity that can lie deep within. And in true Leo fashion, he was in love, had a fiancé. Death interrupted his plans.
His song list contains songs like Locked out of Heaven and Death of a Bachelor. Dramatic like Leo, but true.
Ricky
Until the time of his life review, we hear little from Ricky. He’s quiet. What sign is quiet?
Ricky, we find, is Gemini (June 5) which isn’t a quiet sign but one ruled by Mercury (communication). So why is Ricky so uncommunicative?
As a true Gemini (the twins), Ricky has a double life. One is on this planet, one not. Fireflies, Starman, Life on Mars – if you know a Gemini, don’t expect their “other” life to be understandable. Best let them live seamlessly their two or more lives or it will lead to untruths or unnatural silence.
Cyndi Lauper and David Bowie inspired Ricky’s off-world persona. While is purpose on his other planet is to save a feline race, he’s not really on a hero’s journey like Leo. He’s more like a traveling salesman/savior.
He’s quirky. He moves around. He’s Gemini.
Constance
Best friend – but we sometimes wonder why – of Ocean is Constance. Sweet, shy, and tolerant. She’s a November 14 Scorpio.
The playwright focused on the sensitive side of Scorpio. When we learn about her hidden feelings, we find the more intense Scorpio side. Good as Hell, for example, is her song. Scorpio tends to see life’s decisions – all of them – as serious as life and death.
Her friend Constance’s Capricorn snubs do bother Constance, we learn. And that small town she lives in – she’s not as happy, contented, and tolerant as she appears. Her deep feelings arise.
Passionate like Leo, Constance’s Scorpio side reveals as Just Watch Me Now.
Jane Doe
Also losing her life in the roller coaster disaster is an unidentified girl referred to in police language as “Jane Doe.” Unfortunately, her head was severed in the accident.
“Head,” I pondered. Aries rules the head.
Spot on here. Our headless girl sings Dancing with Myself. This is appropriate for Aries which rules the self, the identity. It’s the “me first” sign. Losing the head is losing the identity (today it’s losing one’s brand) which makes us dead.
Without identity, Jane wanders lost most of the play. Aries isn’t generally “lost” but I’ve never met a decapitated Aries.
Six zodiac signs
Another fascinating aspect of the astrological awareness of this play is that it contains six of the twelve signs but no opposing signs.
Character | Sign | Opposite |
Ocean | Capricorn | Cancer |
Noel | Pisces | Virgo |
Mischa | Leo | Aquarius |
Ricky | Gemini | Sagittarius |
Constance | Scorpio | Taurus |
Jane | Aries | Libra |
- Ocean (Capricorn) and Constance (Scorpio) have an astrologically positive relationship called a sextile.
- Constance (Scorpio) and Noel (Pisces) have an astrologically positive relationship called a trine (both water signs).
- Mischa (Leo) and Ricky (Gemini) have an astrologically positive relationship called a sextile.
- Mischa (Leo) and Jane (Aries) have an astrologically positive relationship called a trine (both fire signs).
- Jane (Aries) and Ricky (Gemini) have an astrologically positive relationship called a sextile.
- The only two “hard” aspects are Noel (Pisces) and Ricky (Gemini) who are both mutable signs; and Mischa (Leo) and Constance (Scorpio) who are both fixed signs.
In a horoscope we also look at the degree of a sign – it’s from 0 to 30 degrees – and look at the exact geometry of it. If we did that here, the relationships aren’t as exact except the two hard aspects.
Well done! Very balanced, very interesting. Allows each character its uniqueness.
Age of Aquarius Theater
As we age, our futures are shorter, so our interests often shift from personal identity and future opportunity to health, family, community, and any “bucket list” items left undone.
In my own experience, generations aren’t simply separated by time and different musical tastes – they are different realities. Older generations shrink in volume and media is targeted to larger segments of the population.
Expecting Ride the Cyclone to target a younger generation, I was pleasantly surprised to find accurate reference to the ancient art of astrology. It’s a play for youth and a play for 2000-year old astrologers.