Described as “the largest miscarriage of justice in English legal history,” the Post Office scandal saw almost a thousand subpostmasters and subpostmistresses wrongly convicted of fraud between 1999 and 2015.

Glitch, the True Story of the Post Office Scandal presented by Rabble Theatre tells the story of the scandal from the perspective of Pam Stubbs (portrayed by Joanne Howarth), a postmistress from the village of Barkham who lost her home and business due to Fujitsu’s faulty accounting system Horizon. It plays at Derby Theatre until Saturday.

Despite the devastation the scandal wrought on the accused, the story was not widely known until 2024 when ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office aired. This play premiered in June of the same year. Only after such media attention did politicians start to take serious notice and the public began to demand greater accountability.

As I might be one of only a handful of people in the UK who hasn’t watched the ITV drama, I went into the play with only broadstroke knowledge of the scandal. I came away from the play outraged and so incredibly frustrated by the many failings of systems meant to protect us.

It forces you to question how the judicial system could fail so many people despite such overwhelming evidence in the subpostmasters’ favour. How could one of the nation’s most trusted and beloved institutions, The Post Office, be so utterly devoid of humanity in dealing with these cases? How could Fujitsu be so wrapped up in protecting its own reputation that it would let so many innocent people be imprisoned, sentenced, and bankrupted? And how, after all this time is full justice still undelivered?

The play tackles these questions whilst focusing on the human side of the story with a strong script written by Zannah Kearns. Despite the topic, the play manages to avoid being overly moralistic, allowing the absurd injustice to speak for itself.

In addition to Howarth as Pam, there are three more members of the cast playing around 15 roles between them.

Laura Penneycard plays, amongst others, Pam’s assistant at the Barkham post office and a young postmistress accused of fraud and sentenced to 6 months in prison. In this latter role, Penneycard is most compelling showing the psychological toll and fear the false conviction brings to such a young person.

Naveed Khan excels in his portrayal of several characters including Alan Bates, the founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance as well as other roles such as an auditor who corroborates Pam’s truth. Despite the number of characters Khan plays, there is never confusion as to who he is at any given time, making good use of body language and styles of speaking to capture the essence of every character.

Sabina Netherclift plays a wide range of roles, but most striking is as the wife of a postmaster wrongly accused of fraud. Her deeply emotional performance in this regard elicited tears from many of the audience, myself included.

Howarth’s only role is Pam. This is a wise decision as she acts as the lynchpin holding the show together and allows a greater emotional connection between her character and the audience. Howarth is devastating in her role. Her final speech, spoken directly to the audience, was so full of raw emotion and delivered with such passion, I had to check the programme to see if the role was played by the real Pam!

Gareth Taylor’s direction is tight, keeping truth and humanity at the fore. For such a short run time (just 75 minutes with no interval) the play covers a lot of ground both temporally and emotionally yet remains well paced and holds plenty of space for all characters and themes to be fully explored.

The play is supported by Caitlin Abbott’s simple but effective set design, initially portraying the village post office and later transforming into a courtroom amongst. Oliver Welsh’s lighting design complements this perfectly, heightening emotions without being too overt. Brain Rays’ composition adds a tension, especially through the glitch sound and lighting effect. Design, lighting and sound come together brilliantly at one point to show the post office literally cracking apart.

This is a play that will enrage you. This is a play you must see.