Mikron Theatre reveal bittersweet truth behind the chocolate industry in new play Pure

Step forward North West writer Richard Vergette, whose play about the German bombing raids on Hull, Dancing Through The Shadows, was a highlight of Hull Truck's 2015 programme last autumn.

"I attended a session with 12 playwrights where Maeve Larkin [another Mikron writer] talked about her experience of working with them and we were then invited to send for some sample themes to look at for Mikron's two shows this year," recalls Richard. "It was then whittled down to the two plays that have been commissioned this year."

One is Vergette's bittersweet chocolate drama Pure, whose national press night will take place in York, the sweetspot of the British chocolate industry, at Scarcroft Allotment on Tuesday evening. The other is Laurence Peacock's story of female factory workers in the First World War, Canary Girls, Heroes On The Front, booked into York at Clements Hall on Sunday, September 25 at 4pm.

Mikron Theatre Company cast member James McLean

In the Marsden company's 45th anniversary year of touring Britain by road, river and canal on the vintage narrowboat Tyseley, Mikron follow up McAndrew's fish-and-chip family scrap by returning to food matters for Pure, in which Kreation Foods, the big American cheese of food manufacturing, have big plans as Vergette delves into the not necessarily sweet business of chocolate.

Chocolate had leapt out at Richard from the list of potential themes. "My day job is being director of drama and head of learning and teaching at Ackworth School, a Quaker school near Pontefract, so I'm reasonably well acquainted with some of the Quaker influences on the chocolate industry, such as the Rowntree and Cadbury families," he says. "I'd also read Deborah Cadbury's book Chocolate Wars, written after Kraft took over Cadbury."

Prompted by the notion of chocolate being a commodity that is consumed a long way from where it is produced, Richard came up with the working title of Pure for his play. "We then decided to stick with it, short as it is, because one of the early problems for chocolatiers was creating a product that was palatable after processing the cocoa fat," he says.

"There's also the idea of 'pure' being synonymous with honesty, but if you look at the motive for big companies who've taken over chocolate factories, I suggest it's been nothing to do with improving the quality of the chocolate or the quality of the lives of the workforce."

Vergette contrasts this assertion with the factory practices of the past. "The Quakers had a history of taking care of their workforce, both at Rowntree and Cadbury, where the founder didn't believe in personal profit but in ploughing it back into the Bournville village," he says. "It was capitalism, but benign capitalism in the interest of those who lived there or worked there."

In Vergette's play, Kreation Foods 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 event is in bad taste.

Vergette then cuts to 150 years ago when pioneers of chocolate were 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?

Playwright Richard Vergette

"The idea behind this storyline is that we see the origins of a fictional chocolate company called Plumstead's, who in the present day are being taken over by an equally fictional company, Kreation Foods," says Richard. "In the story 150 years ago, we see the process of how they start to create a pure form of chocolate.

"In George Cadbury's case, he put his last £1,000 into purchasing a machine from Holland, where Dutch chocolatier Cornelis Van Houten had created a system to expel the fat and so purify the chocolate."

At the same, says Vergette, there were reprehensible practices of finding thickening agents to make chocolate palatable. "Some chocolatiers used potato starch, arrowroot and, would you believe it, brick dust," he reveals.

"You can still do chocolate on the cheap now, where you can remove some of the nutrients and add something else. If you muck about with the recipe, you can produce something that tastes similar but the quality has diminished."

Vergette also considers the issues of child and slave labour in the cocoa industry, the lawlessness that blights the industry in the Ivory Coast, and the important role of Fair Trade in countering exploitation. "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," he says.

For all the seriousness of the ultimate, educative message in Pure, his play carries the familiar Mikron tropes of four actor-musicians, witty songs and plenty of humour in the fast-moving dialogue."That's the key to their shows' success. The brief is very clear from Mikron: three songs per half; lots of jokes; and don't make the scenes too long," says Richard, who has written the lyrics for songs with a Latin American, African and even a Victorian Patter flavour.

"That's the Mikron brand, presenting pretty serious issues but with humour, broadly drawn characters, and good battling against evil. For this show, if you're going to do justice to a subject like chocolate, you have to capture its global reach and the songs must reflect that too."

Mikron Theatre Company present Pure, at Scarcroft Allotment, Scarcroft Road, York, Tuesday, 7pm. No tickets required; just turn up; seating is available; refreshments will be on sale (and no doubt chocolate). A cash collection for Mikron will be taken after the show.