A band's third album is always the trickiest, do you stick with what has made you a success or try to shake things up with a new approach? Spoken word artist Polarbear has taken a chance and gone with the latter.

The man from Birmingham, real name Steven Camden, debuts his new show, Return, at Battersea Arts Centre from Tuesday as it launches its The Big Story season celebrating the revitalised art of storytelling.

Having achieved wide success with his last show, an hour long rhyming monologue called If I Cover My Nose You Cannot See Me, Polarbear decided to try something completely different this time.

"It's something different for me and everything about it has been about me stepping up a gear," he says.

"On the back of that If I Cover My Nose I wanted to do something else and I love film so I decided I wanted to talk a film.

"The story became clear early on but then it became about serving that story and I didn't want it to rhyme.

"Anyone who knows my previous work may be expecting the same thing but will be quite surprised.

"I'm creating the marmite effect where you like it or you don't. It's sort of like the tricky third album.

"I wanted to know can I speak a film? Can I hold everyone's attention by talking a film?

"Its something else and the best thing about it for me is that there will be nothing in the way, there is no projection and no other sound whatsoever."

Return is about Polarbear's relationship with his home town, Birmingham, and the feelings he experienced when he moved to London.

"They are things that I have been wanting to say for a long time," he says.

"It's about my relationship with Birmingham, my home, and feeling like you have to leave to do anything and that escalating feeling of being trapped.

"But then when you leave you realise that you didn't mind where you were and that the thing you get most excited about once you have left is home but you can't really go back.

"It's very much about the idea that when I was there I was very set on leaving but more or less everything I have ever written has been about Birmingham.

"It's me realising I cannot live without it."

Polarbear, Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, March 2 to 20 and 25, 7.30pm, £12. Call 020 7223 2223 or visit bac.org.uk.

Also on this week as part of The Big Story:

Sporadical by Little Bulb Theatre

An epic folk opera full of arias, sea shanties, ballads, and beat poetry. March 2 to 20, 9.30pm, £5.

The Poof Downstairs by Jon Haynes

A circuitous and ambiguous black comedy about Jeremy as he moves back in with his warring parents. March 4 to 20, 8pm, £10.

My Story

Real people telling real stories from funny anecdotes and tragic tales to painful separations and joyful reunions. March 5 and 6, 7pm, £10.

Class of 76 by Third Angel

Live art performance revealing real stories behind the faces of a 1976 school photo. March 5 and 6, 8.15pm, £10.