It took a while to get going but this thoughtful take on the struggles and achievements of women proved rewarding.

Stella is the story of two people separated by time but united by a fascination with space: Caroline Herschel, the acclaimed 19th-century astronomer who discovered several comets, and her fictional modern-day counterpart Jessica Bell, who is researching Herschel’s life.

From their different positions in history both look up at the same stars and ponder the mysteries not only of the universe but of the human heart.

Writer Siobhan Nicholas’s premise provided a neat springboard to explore the development of feminism, as well as the elusive quest for work/life balance.

The bright, vivacious Herschel (played by Nicholas herself) suffers in both departments, hemmed in by a society in which women, however talented, could aspire to little more than being wives and mothers and yet, thanks to her talents, tragically denied those roles as well. The character of Jessica was less complete; she felt at times more narrative device than person.

But this did little to detract from an elegant, accomplished piece of theatre that showed the people at the end of the telescope to be as fascinating and complex as the universe they gaze on.