To mark both Pentabus and New Perspectives 50th anniversary celebrations, and a combined 100 years of world-class rural touring theatre, both companies are pleased to announce Make Good, a new musical three years in the making that tells the story of the Post Office Scandal, now recognised as one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in British history. The show will tour in Autumn this year with dates and venues to be announced in the coming months.
Make Good is directly informed by conversations writer Jeanie O’Hare has conducted with affected sub-postmasters since 2021. Entirely innocent, they nevertheless had their lives torn apart and faced bankruptcy, isolation, and jail. The epic fightback to prove their honesty started in a tiny village hall in Fenny Compton and is still ongoing. Capturing in song the bravery and determination of these exemplary public servants, Make Good shows what can happen when powerless people find their voice. On a recent rehearsal room visit, Mohamed Hami, affected by the scandal, commented: “The musical is full of feeling. And that’s what we need to portray to people now, so that they can feel and understand what we felt, all the heartache that we went through. The songs bring so much to the story, they’re heartfelt and there’s humour in it too, it’s funny. It made me smile as well as being touching.”
The Post Office Scandal saw over 900 sub-postmasters in the UK wrongly prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from Fujitsu’s Horizon computer from 1999 – 2015. The recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office is credited with igniting public interest in the scandal.
Make Good will be a musical testament to the astonishing resilience of families facing incredible odds in a system stacked against them with the sub-postmasters’ experience and community at its heart.
Elle While, Artistic Director of Pentabus and Director of Make Good, commented: “When Jeanie approached me with the idea of making a musical inspired by the stories of the wrongly accused sub-postmasters, I knew this was a Pentabus story. Their campaign started in a village hall and it feels apt that Pentabus and New Perspectives intend to take this heroic story back into the villages and kind of community spaces where this fightback began.” not over. We’re honoured to bring this story to the stage for the first time, but also raging it needs to be told in the first place.”
The first few dates of the tour are now on sale: https://pentabus.co.uk/make-good-post-office- scandal . Further dates to be announced.
