The Manual Oracle

The Manual Oracle explores the intersection between self-consciousness, theatricality and paranoia within a scenic montage that looks at immigration, xenophobia, surveillance, psychiatric services, corporate scheming and survivalist movements.

This new play is inspired by Baltasar Gracián’s Oráculo manual, a seventeenth-century ‘self-help-book’ that coaches courtiers in self-promotion, social skill and psychological cunning. However, Gracián’s worldly wisdom veils a much more paranoid message: others are only waiting to harm you.

Conceived and directed by Phoebe von Held, it features specially commissioned scenes by writers Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams. Sound-design: Jamie Hamilton, Stage-design: Moi Tran, Lighting-design: studio ZNA.

The Manual Oracle script has been developed through collaborative practice with mental health service users, mental health professionals and researchers at the Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, sponsored through a Leverhulme Artists Residency. 

Phoebe von Held’s previous work as director, adaptor, translator and designer includes: Rameau’s Nephew [1998] and The Nun [2003] both at Citizens Theatre, Glasgow; and animation works; D’Alembert’s Dialogues, 2005 and Chrysalis [2008] shown at Crossing-Over: Encounters between Art & Biotechnology, Royal Institution, London.