YORK, the city that smells of KitKat, was chosen for the national press night for Pure, a play that kicks up a different stench in its chocolate story, told by Marsden's Mikron Theatre Company at the outset of their 45th summer of touring by canal, river and road.

Playwright Richard Vergette, who incidentally played Pilate in the Millennium Mystery Plays in York Minster, makes his Mikron debut with a bitter-sweet tale of the past and present of the chocolate industry. Its storyline has particular resonance in a city that lost Terry's and had its Chocolate Orange snatched away and handed to Krakow.

Scarcroft Allotment was warmed by Tuesday evening sunlight; tea cups, fruit loaf and chocolate goodies were enticingly positioned for business, and as the audience gathered in record numbers under the awnings, Stefan Escreet's jaunty cast of four actor-musicians – Stephanie Hackett, James McLean, Claire Burns and Matt Jopling – set to work on their multiple role playing.

Vergette's structure involves two parallel events that demand quick costume and character changes and a minimal set. Here in 2016, the big hand of American corporate business, Kreation Foods, has greedily grasped the old Quaker factory of Plumstead's, wrapping up their takeover in the cynical re-launch of the Pure bar. The English staff are divided, one siding with those pesky Americans; two on the side of fairness and fair trade.

Meanwhile, 150 years ago, sides are divided betwixt good and evil again, this time in pursuit of a purer form of chocolate. The stories overlap, told with plenty of humour, a moral core and witty songs, the show's strongest suit. The performance style is broad and as snappy as a KitKat; the tone is milk and white in chocolate flavour, rather than dark.

Mikron Theatre Company's Pure is on a summer tour in tandem with a second play, Laurence Peacock's Canary Girls, until September 8. The autumn tour brings  Canary Girls to Clements Hall, York, on Sunday, September 25 at 4pm. Tickets are on sale on 01904 466086; from Pexton’s Hardware, Bishopthorpe Road; or by emailing willyh@phonecoop.coop