"IT’S like the old adage: ‘Behind every great man there’s a great woman’. The more I looked at William Herschel the more I realised Caroline was a great astronomer in her own right.”

In Stella, Brighton-based actor and playwright Siobhan Nicholas tells the true story of one of history’s greatest astronomers, contrasting it with the experiences of a contemporary female scientist Jess.

“It’s about women who can plot their exact position in the universe, but are still struggling to forge a place in the world,” says Nicholas, who co-founded the Take The Space Theatre Company.

“The astronomer Helen Czreski once said: ‘Women scientists are like unicorns – many people have never seen one and so don’t believe they exist’. There are so many brilliant women scientists written out of history.”

Caroline was born in Hanover, but moved to Bath to be with her older brother William.

“She came from an abusive home,” says Nicholas. “William was a musician, well-known in Bath for writing his own oratorios and concertos. He rescued her.”

Living in Bath, Caroline learned English, mathematics and music, contributing her light soprano to her brother’s compositions. When he began to be interested in astronomy she helped him build his own telescope.

Then everything changed.

“William discovered Uranus, and became King George III’s personal astronomer,” says Nicholas.

“They left Bath which was a huge loss to Caroline, but she had no choice. She had no means of existing on her own. William got married and Caroline was left as a spinster on her own.”

At the same time she was making amazing discoveries, including eight comets and several nebulae. Her astronomical charts helped many future scientists. But while her brother was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society and later celebrated, Caroline was forgotten about.

Nicholas contrasts this with modern day astronomer Jessica, played in this production by EastEnders star Sian Webber.

The character of Jessica was based loosely on contemporary astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars while a post-graduate student in Cambridge, but was excluded from sharing the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 with her tutor Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle.

She later went on to become the president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004 and was made the first female president of the Royal Society Of Edinburgh in October 2014.

“I’ve since met her – but she has no bitterness about the Nobel Prize,” says Nicholas.

“Jocelyn says we are all made of star stuff – if we were to truly take that on there would be no wars and prejudice, no gap between rich and poor.”

For the touring play the action is accompanied by projections of the stars sourced from Andy Lawes, the founder of the East Sussex Astronomical Society.

“We are all star-gazing at the same time,” says Nicholas. “I did a lot of research, especially with the wonderful Marek Kukula at the Royal Observatory.”

Now Nicholas is working on her fifth play, White Feather Boxer, about a conscientious objector in the First World War.

“I wanted to marry boxing and pacifism, having got into the whole Quaker world through Jocelyn,” says Nicholas, referring to Bell Burnell’s active role in the Quakers.

“My dad was a boxer and my husband has also boxed. I find it terrifying. I felt if my central character was a boxer then it says to me straight away that he’s a brave man.”

Stella
Minerva Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, Thursday, February 19. Starts 7.45pm, tickets £20/£16. Visit brightonscience.com.