If ever you see Mikron Theatre chugging into view, you’re in luck. You’re also somewhere on the British waterways network, as this is the only company to fulfil the majority of its touring schedule by narrowboat. This particular stop, on a vegetable plot in York, was one of Mikron’s rare forays inland – but a significant one as Richard Vergette’s new play traces the corporate demise of our great chocolate dynasties.
York had two of these – Rowntree, which now belongs to Nestlé, and Terry’s, bought out by the Kraft group, which switched production of the Chocolate Orange to Poland. Since then Kraft has also acquired Cadbury’s and outraged public opinion by tinkering with the ingredients of the Creme Egg.
Vergette explores the common link that all these companies (plus Fry’s in Bristol) were founded by Quakers, who advocated cocoa as an alternative to alcohol and ploughed the profits into improving the social conditions of their employees. By means of some extremely speedy costume changes, the cast of four present both ends of the story at the same time. We meet a young inventor keen to patent a new means of extracting cocoa butter, then skip forwards to the present day in which ethics have been subsumed to profits following a hostile American takeover of the fictional chocolate company.
Among the myriad comings and goings, James McLean is particularly impressive both as the Quaker philanthropist who founds the company, and the jargon-spouting American executive who comes to destroy it through the implementation of a Chocolate Responsibility and Appreciation Programme (spot the acronym).
As ever, Mikron manages to land a sociological punch without resorting to preachiness. What you get is a mix of big-hearted folk-theatre, accomplished actor-musicianship and broad satire that has served the company well for over 45 years. If nothing else, it ought to send out a message to the chocolate magnates that you tamper with a winning formula at your peril.
