By Fleur Baikie

As a tired and weary fourth year, I could not wait for a night out at the theatre and going to see ‘Fresher: The Musical’ was the perfect antidote to final year stress. It made me think back to my own Fresher’s week all those years ago and had me giggling all the way through.

With excellent direction from Doug Gibbs, a well rehearsed band and singers lead by Chris Guard and Nat Goodwin holding it all together as producer, Tone Deaf  Theatre Company have certainly proven themselves with this production.

Having never even heard of the show before, I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was a funny, yet moving story with polished performances from all five actors. Charlie Warner, playing posh-boy Rupert,  had me in constant laughter. He has a beautiful voice, which came through particularly in his song. What struck me most about Charlie was his ability to remain in character the whole time. Iknow this is often a given, but even in scenes where the attention was not on him he was acting his socks off, helping to really create his character. Having already seen Elissa Churchill in The Pirates of Penzance and Oklahoma!, I had high expectations and she did not disappoint. Playing a completely different part to the other two shows, I was pleasantly surprised by her portrayal of spoilt Ally.

She amused me greatly and her voice really stood out.I loved Timmy Fisher’s performance of Tuc, the lad of the house. He kept the pace of the show moving and coped very well with his microphone, which spent a good twenty minutes hanging off his ear and was finally remedied by an attractive piece of gaffa tape in a scene change.

Izzy Osbourne did a great job of playing the quiet and shy Hayley. She was very well cast, as she looked the part and equaled Elissa in terms of singing and stage presence. Her relationship with Timmy’s character was very believable and the pair of them must take credit for this.I thought Maxwell Spence was outstanding as geeky Basil.

I was pleased to see the DSU being used for a show and I feel TDTC made excellent use of the ballroom. With a simple set there were no long and dull scene changes, so the show flowed smoothly and allowed the audience to be swept away with the craziness of this Freshers’ week. Lighting was generally well used and I particularly enjoyed the scene where the characters went out clubbing. I felt like I was back at Revolver or Planet from my first year! My only criticism would be that at times the band were a little too loud so I couldn’t always hear the singing.

All in all I had a great evening and walked all the way home thinking about my Freshers’ week and how much fun I had. The cast, crew, band and production team should be commended for a fabulous show! This show truly was a breath of Fresh-air.