MIKRON Theatre Company will celebrate their 45th anniversary by touring Britain's inland waterways once more on a vintage narrowboat, presenting Richard Vergette’s new play, Pure, between May 28 and October 22.

Vergette will be delving into the rich but not necessarily sweet business of chocolate and aptly the national press performance will be held in York, the sweetspot of the British chocolate industry, at Scarcroft Allotments on Tuesday, June 7.

After the savoury and unsavoury goings-on of last year's fish and chip drama, Deborah McAndrew's One Of Each, Marsden company Mikron are returning to food matters for Pure, in which Kreation Foods are the big cheese of food manufacturing and have big plans.

Armed with all due razzmatazz, they are re-launching the nation’s one-time favourite chocolate bar, Plumstead’s Pure. For head of marketing Theresa, this is a delicious moment, but for idealistic trainee Faye the whole event is in bad taste.

Cut to 150 years ago and the pioneers of chocolate are fighting other battles. John Jordan has discovered a revolutionary way to make chocolate, but can he persuade his tight-fisted landlord, Darius Sanguine, to finance his bold idea?

"If a business is big, does it really have to be bad?" asks Vergette in his play of many flavours, from past and present. "Does success always have a sweet smell?

“Researching this play has been one of the most fascinating aspects of writing Pure and not because it’s given me an excuse to eat lots of chocolate (I don’t need an excuse). Discovering that child and slave labour are still features of chocolate production made me realise that while I wanted the play to celebrate chocolate, I couldn’t ignore the darker elements of its story either.”

Pure will be directed by Stefan Escreet, former associate director at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, and designed by One Of Each designer Kat Morton and will feature compositions by musical director Rebekah Hughes, who worked on Northern Broadsides' The Winter’s Tale. The cast will comprise actor-musicians James McLean, Claire Burns, Stephanie Hackett and Matt Joplin.

“I'm so happy to be working with Mikron for the first time in their 45th year of touring, and especially with such an important story that needs to be told," says Stefan Escreet. "Chocolate isn't always all that we're led to believe. With loads of delicious songs, and some sumptuous dialogue, the show will be a treat with a conscience."

As ever, Mikron will be travelling around the country on their vintage narrowboat, Tyseley, playing at 150 venues this year. Pure will be touring alongside another new show, Canary, a celebration of the female factory workers of the First World War.