Toronto Fringe Review: Milk Milk Lemonade

Cootie catchers, Fruit Roll-Ups, egg drop experiments, M.A.S.H., and more! Get ready for a trip down memory lane with Milk Milk Lemonade by Mallowmarsh Productions. Emma Nelles and Jonas Trottier play a variety of elementary school kids (and teachers) in this adorably funny clown show.

The show features short sketches of Nelles and Trottier writing tests, playing the recorder, grading art homework — normal school things with a silly twist. The kids are differentiated with the addition or removal of a costume piece, which sometimes made it hard to keep track of who was who. The one narrative throughline is two kids, Ginny and Jimmy, who both have a crush on each other but don’t want to be the one to admit to it first. I especially liked the recurring jokes about the theatre tech itself, with lighting and audio cues not happening at the “right” moments. There is some gentle (and optional) audience participation before and during the show.

The switch to playing teachers partway through was unexpected but fun. It felt very fitting that the teacher characters didn’t wear the clown noses like the children characters. There’s some good old-fashioned madlibs too, using words written down by the audience before the show starts.

Overall, Nelles and Trottier’s performances were super engaging, sweet, and funny. Milk Milk Lemonade is a nostalgic, lighthearted revisiting of classic elementary school moments. If you like clown shows, this is a solid one to check out.

Milk Milk Lemonade is on now until July 12 as part of Toronto Fringe. Schedule and Tickets.