Written by Zannah Kearns and directed by Gareth Taylor, Glitch is the story of a sub-postmistress, Pam Stubbs, whose life is left in tatters after she is falsely accused of deceiving the Post Office out of thousands of pounds. But with meticulous bookkeeping and the strength to keep fighting for what is right when she knew she had done nothing wrong; she finally receives a positive outcome. But at what cost?
Glitch takes us right into the centre of one of the biggest “scandals” when the Post Office brought in the Horizon computer system and when Pam Stubbs, back in 2009, moved into a portacabin while the building underwent a redevelopment.
The monthly Trading Statements produced shortfalls on the Horizon system and the Post Office demanded Stubbs pay it back, even though she had copies of every transaction and was eventually suspended after refusing to pay back money she never stole and offered to meet her manager in court with her evidence.
This is where she joined the Justice for Sub-postmasters’ Alliance and she found that she was not the only one caught up in this “scandal.” People were losing their homes, businesses, getting into debt to pay back this money that they never took just so they didn’t get a criminal record. Innocent people were sent to prison. And so the JFSA began court action against the Post Office which was a huge success.
Sadly, many of the members, sub-postmasters, died before they could be cleared or receive any payback or compensation.
The cast is made up of four actors, with Joanne Howarth at the helm as Pam Stubbs, delivering a strong performance, taking us on that journey with wit, determination and a lot of emotion. Laura Penneycard, Naveed Khan and Sabina Nethertclift make up the remaining cast and play a plethora of characters, from other postmasters, customers, enforcement officers, judges to name but a few. They jump from character to character with ease and put everything into telling this important story, to deliver the truth and show how these poor people were treated due to a technical ‘Glitch’ in a system. A word that the former CEO of the Post Office had asked her husband in an email for a non-emotive word to describe, it was heard in the 2024 Horizon Public Inquiry.
The set was simple but used extremely well, with pieces being dismantled and moved around to create new spaces, down to boxes of ‘evidence’ with many names on, each depicting a sub-postmaster, used especially well in the courtroom scene. Lighting was simple but effective and gave the audience a sense of urgency and distress at times, along with sound which helped portray the characters’ feelings of helplessness and frustration.
Zannah Kearns has done an incredible job writing this piece, speaking to so many sub-postmasters, finding the truths and keeping them in the public eye until hopefully a full and final redress has been achieved.
Reviewer: Damian Riverol
Reviewed: 16th February 2026
North West End UK Rating:
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