We all know what ley lines are. They are invisible, dead-straight lines through the landscape, joining places of significance over distances of often hundreds of miles. One of the longest, the St. Michael Ley Line, runs from Lands End to the Suffolk coast and, contrary to what you might think, does not join up all the Marks and Spencer stores on the way. Its origins go back many centuries so would obviously preclude most of the M & S shops.

Although the basis or inspiration for these peculiar phenomena have been lost in time, the strange thing is that they were only discovered as recently as 1921 by an amateur archaeologist, Alfred Watkins.

The story of one man’s walk along the St. Michael Ley Line over a period of several summer weeks may not seem, on the face of it, to be enthralling theatre – or any type of theatre at all, come to that. But oddly, as with the lines themselves, Beneath the Albion Sky, in the Studio of the Everyman Cheltenham, has a strange magnetism to it and is quite enthralling.

Very simply, it is the story of the walk told by its perpetrator Paul. It recalls his experiences, both real and imagined, and throws in a lot of interesting facts to keep the pot boiling. You would think that you were watching the man himself and that the story was his story. But no, Paul was played by an actor, Andy Kelly, reciting the words of Corinne Furness and Charlie Whitworth. With his sturdy boots, waterproof watch and neat nylon anorak he was an unlikely hero but, against all expectations, it was really good stuff which I enjoyed a lot.

I like a bit of history and I like good theatre and Beneath the Albion Sky delivered both in an entertaining and informative way. Presented by the Write by Numbers company which sponsors radical (in the sense of very different) writing and performance, one wasn’t sure whether one was watching a play or attending a lecture, but it worked, and worked well. More power to their elbow, or in this case, ankle. ★★★★☆ Michael Hasted