Brothers Marquez

Note: This review is from 2001

Review by Steve Bennett

This amiable show, from two genuine half-Spanish, half-English brothers, explores the relationships men have with each other - suppressed, superficial and based on some perceived idea of masculinity.

Don't be put off that all sounds a little heavy, for this is a breezy selection of witty and well thought-out sketches, full of neatly-observed banter and fine touches of physical comedy.

The pair initially trade on their Iberian background - which they revisit for a bizarre and somewhat awkward finale - but otherwise the messages are fairly universal: how sensitivity is ridiculed by a laddish mentality and how male friendships can be forged on the shallowest of bases.

It's not cynically done, though, and the brothers even make such relationships unexpectedly touching - though it does take a pretty drastic event to illustrate that.

The sketches, which follow a narrative thread, rely on observations of the familiar to generate laughs, rather than sparking unbridled hilarity from comic excess.

These are touchingly old-fashioned performances, too, which means the show makes up in likeability what it lacks in cutting-edge comic invention.

Review date: 1 Jan 2001
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

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