Review: GLITCH, Reading University Theatre - RABBLE Theatre

Photo credit: Annabel Crich

The story of the Horizon software system used by 35,000 sub postmasters has already been subject to a great deal of journalistic reporting, court cases and TV programmes but it finally connected in a meaningful way with the wider public and subsequently with the Government with the brilliant ITV show Mr Bates v the Post Office in January 2024. Yet there is still much to be revealed and explained, more personal stories to be told and of course, proper compensation to be settled on for those wrongly accused of theft. Zannah Kearns’ new play, commissioned by Reading University in collaboration with RABBLE Theatre, provides more insight into the personal stories and the impacts on their family, friends and colleagues by focusing on one local Berkshire story, that of Pam Stubbs.

Stubbs was the postmaster of Barkham village shop, just south of Reading, from August 1999 when her husband, the postmaster, died until her suspension from the role after large discrepancies in June 2010. The play focuses initially on the traumatic six months from December 2009 until her suspension when the temporary move of the system into a portacabin started to generate unexplained differences and she battled with a help line system operative who denied any problems, and a regional manager who assumed it was evidence of fraud. Elizabeth Elvin wonderfully captures the emotional and stressful impact that that period had on her relationships with colleague Nora (Laura Penneycard), her customers (Sabina Netherclift) and the Post Office engineer/auditor sent to investigate (Fayez Bakhsh). This beautifully conveys the isolation, frustration and desperation that she felt while also demonstrating the single-minded pig-headed stubbornness that drove her to fight for justice.

Interspersed are several monologues that have the feel of verbatim theatre telling compelling stories of other affected people such as 19-year-old Tracey, jailed for six months, Carrie who pleaded guilty and got a suspended sentence, but it destroyed her marriage, and the wife of James who committed suicide after technical losses and an armed robbery. These stories are powerful emotional insights into the real damage that the Post Office had on their own staff by the failure to acknowledge the system glitches.

Of course, Alan Bates (Bakhsh) also features as the man who brought them together and led the court case and we hear the scale of the problem in court with 47 million transactions each week and the examples of errors created by individual bugs. The play understandably casts doubt on the British Justice system and an alleged bias towards the well-funded corporate accusers against the isolated individuals until they combined with actual detailed written evidence of transactions, that Stubbs had kept and which demonstrated the system errors.

The story is enhanced, as with so many of the excellent RABBLE Theatre projects, by the local references connecting the audience into the story and at times, making us feel that we are fellow sub postmasters being drawn into the case. It is cleverly and fluidly set so it flows from the Barkham shop to the Justice for Postmaster Alliance meetings to the court case, and the excellent cast create a multitude of characters with minimal costume changes and adjustments to accents.

This is an important story that remains only partially understood. When will Fujitsu explain how the bugs created the shortfalls and why they did not occur in every post office? The play keeps the story in the public eye, adds insight into the impact the allegations had and deserves to be seen by a wider audience in its next stage of development. It remains relevant and important while the enquiry continues, and the compensation claims remain unsettled. Like the recent A Child of Science at Bristol Old Vic, it is a national story with a local interest. It’s a complex underlying narrative which is simply explained and at the core of it are stories of real people which give it an emotional heart and connect it to the audience. A powerful, emotional and fascinating 75-minute story.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne

Glitch plays at Reading University Theatre until 6 July, with further info here.