Glitch – Harrogate Theatre

Writer: Zannah Kearns

Director: Gareth Taylor

The scandal of the Post Office and the Horizon computer programme is surely all over. The sub-postmasters/mistresses must have been compensated by now and Alan Bates has been knighted, so all’s right with the world. As a powerful antidote to such wishful thinking, what Glitch does is remind of the human suffering involved (with at least 13 suicides) and – shockingly – the fact that many have yet to see any compensation.

Pam Stubbs was the sub-postmistress at Barkham Post Office and essentially the play is her story, with other tales interwoven: the young woman, here named Tracey, who endured the humiliation of six months in prison (one, incidentally of 236 who suffered a similar fate) and the sombre monologue of the wife whose husband withdrew into himself and then ended it all, leaving a note saying “Sorry”.

On the death of her husband Martin in 1999, after 12 years running Barkham Post Office together, Pam took on the role of sub-postmistress. All went well for 10 years, then she decided the building needed replacing and moved the Post Office temporarily into a portacabin. This proved too much for the Horizon system which instantly began discovering a non-existent shortfall. Constant phone calls – pleading with increasing irritation for some assistance from engineers whose base was only 20 minutes away – eventually produced a visit from an engineer who generated similar results.  This made no impression on the Post Office which took her keys for instant closure.

Toby Davies of RABBLE Theatre, the company who staged the play last year and is now touring it, hopes we’ll enjoy the show. By the end that seems a forlorn hope, but in the early stages it’s certainly true. Pam’s indignation at the computer playing up has its entertaining side, especially when she’s attempting to engage with faceless voices on the phone (sadly typical of many people’s everyday experience). A cantankerous customer gets into a row with Nora, Pam’s loyal assistant, about how Martin would never have moved into a portacabin and there’s even a quick impression of Pam’s daughter’s wedding to cheer things up.

The moment when indignation turns into appalled fury comes when Pam is turned out, Nora’s loyalty proves fickle, there are other hints of the village turning against her – and the simple flexible set is stripped of Post Office signage. Pam’s meticulous record-keeping is her salvation. Before the end there are four major scenes/speeches which afford a chilling commentary on the Post Office attitude: two big court room scenes (Banks unable to make headway, Pam there with chapter and verse), the narration of the sub-postmaster’s suicide and Pam’s final speech, full of righteous anger which we share as she tells us that nobody at the Post Office has been charged and many of the sub-postmasters are still waiting for compensation seven years after the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance claimed victory.

Gareth Taylor’s economically straightforward production benefits from the never overstated emotional power of Zannah Kearns’ script and the truth of the four performers. Joanne Howarth is compelling as Pam, indeed convinces us that she is Pam, and three actors play somewhere in the region of 15 parts between them with almost no hint of caricature. Laura Penneycard’s Nora enlivens the opening scenes, but she is harrowing as Tracy, as is Sandra Netherclift as the bereaved widow – quite a change from her icy performance as counsel. Naveed Khan possesses a natural warmth, well suited to Pam’s councillor friend David and the Post Office employee being hauled over the coals for his sympathy with Pam.

We are left with two hugely disturbing thoughts: the levels of suffering, often uncompensated (Pam makes it clear that others are far worse off than she) and the shiftiness of the Post Office which may not have changed in these days of self-congratulation that justice has triumphed.

Reviewed on 13 March 2026, then continuing to tour.