KATHERINE MacALISTER talks to American spoken word and installation artist Fergus Evans about identity, homesickness, and his new show My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree Street, part of the Playhouse Plays Out season

Fergus Evans was homesick, and bored of telling everyone he met where he was from and why a Yank was living in Manchester.

“People are naturally curious and they were just being friendly. It’s human nature to want to place people,” he says diplomatically, “but it is exhausting because everyone thinks they know about the US and want to know if it’s true, so it is always a responsibility.”

The reality was that every time Fergus went out, he was asked the same questions over and over again, and realised his answers were becoming more and more unlikely, and that the place he used to call home – Atlanta – had probably changed beyond all recognition.”

It was this realisation which led to My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree Street, Fergus’s new show, which is part of this year’s Playhouse Plays Out season, being staged at the Oxford Youth Hostel on Botley Road from tonight.

“Putting the show together was weirdly cathartic because when I first got here I was miserable. And living in Manchester for seven years I met lots of people I cared about but culturally I did not feel like I fitted in.

“I really missed where I grew up and had to deal with that and the inevitability of not being able to go forward or back. But the incredible thing is that half way through, I didn’t want to go back to Atlanta, it was more about purging because I was so homesick.

“So My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree Street is about going forward for me, and the wonderful places you construct in your mind. There’s something really delicious about that.”

Using animation, installation and spoken word, Fergus is trying to make sense of his journey so far: “I’m always fascinated about how people are going to react and it evokes my curiosity about where they grew up. So I ask people about where they’re from and what they miss. It’s basically an experiment for me because people carry a lot of emotional weight.”

To ensure it’s intimacy, the show is written and performed for just nine people at a time: “I wanted to make it a conversation so people could interrupt and tell me something when they wanted to. And while that may be possible in a 180-seater theatre, I wanted to work with a smaller audience so that you are in it together, and people really respond to it, so this way makes it much more personal.”

And while all the venues on the tour are different, the Oxford Playhouse came back with the youth hostel idea, “which is perfect because this piece is all about transience and leaving home,” Fergus says.

Now living in London, this will be Fergus’ first time in Oxford. “I’m really excited, and I’ll keep going until I want to stop talking about Georgia,” and then he pauses and adds: “Maybe I’m greedy but it’s also a really nice feeling to sit in a room and chat to people, so I’m very excited.”

Playhouse Plays Out: My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree Street is at Oxford Youth Hostel Association from tonight until Saturday. Go to www.oxfordplayhouse.com call the box office on 01865 305305