Set in Summerhall’s anatomy lecture theatre, we spend an hour speeding through, almost at the speed of light, feminist history of the known and unknown.

Aether, performed by TheatreGoose and written by Emma Howlett explores our human fascination with the scientific. We are propelled from modern day to ancient history to more recent centuries, where discoveries and investigations are made to try to understand the unknown. All with a female at the centre, we see how science is conceived into other ideals such as witchcraft or magic.

TheatreGoose have almost made this play specifically for this space. Arming us with whiteboards and pens, we immediately feel as if we are part of a lecture, engaging with us later in just that fashion. The circular space in front of us features only a blue curtain that is played with throughout, but still managing, with the use of a handy projector (if you’re old enough to remember the ones with the plastic film that you swapped in and out), to utilise the small space by projecting onto the ceiling above – although, blink, and you may miss it!

The performers are all brilliant in their own rights, each with their own unique take, whether this is within the ensemble or in individual characters. With very little props or pieces of costume, they add these subtleties to try and make it clear the change along with their own changes in movement or voice.

While it’s well performed and looks the part, for me the story-line felt slightly disjointed. Whether it’s my own lack of knowledge in the science sphere, I struggled to find what the connections between the stories were and how this related to the modern character. There is maybe one or two moments of her investigating this but it doesn’t cover them all. Each story in their own right was interesting and well presented, but as a whole, they did not feel as if they quite knitted together.

Aether is a really interesting approach to joining science and art, with a great use of the space and wonderful performances. However, the stories themselves seemed separated with no clear conclusion of how they were to come together.