Join Riding Lights Theatre Company for an explosive satire – that turns ancient Bible stories into laugh-out-loud theatre.
Two wild strangers roll into York for the 2026 Mystery Plays Fringe, and the tales they tell are about to turn the city upside down.
The York theatre company will bring a new production of Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo to Friargate Theatre, in the year that celebrates 100 years since Fo’s birth.
Audiences can expect ‘ferocious wit and fearless physical storytelling’ and this hilarious take on the Mystery Plays is the perfect fringe choice for those who like their comedy with a bit of bite.
Mistero Buffo is at Friargate Theatre from Saturday 27 June to Saturday 4 July.
York-based actor Thomas Frere, and Cathy Sara will both make their debut with Riding Lights Theatre Company, playing an array of comedic characters in this exciting two-hander of Mistero Buffo.
Thomas has been acting, directing and playing music for more than 35 years and is probably most known in the north for his work with North Country Theatre where he was associate director and performed in many shows including the now very successful Thirty-Nine Steps, in which he created the part of Hannay.
He’s appeared on stages up and down the country, and on TV in, amongst others, Emmerdale, The Royal, Gentleman Jack and Coronation Street.
Cathy trained at Webber Douglas, and has enjoyed many roles in Theatre (including Cordelia in King Lear (Hackney Empire), Cathy/Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights (Leeds Playhouse) and Stiffy Byng in By Jeeves (Stephen Joseph Theatre & West End).
Her TV credits include Downton Abbey, Kavanagh QC, Emmerdale, Breathless and film highlights Topsy-Turvy and The Woman in Black. In recent years Cathy set up Kairos Arts – a charity using the arts therapeutically to nurture emotional health and restore hope.
Director Paul Birch said: “When we turn on the news we’re swamped with stories of rich and powerful people doing terrible things; whether it’s the Middle East, or Ukraine or Epstein, we are being confronted by injustice and a world which seems rotten to its core.
“It is easy to feel powerless and overwhelmed. Mistero Buffo is a savage satire which uses comedy and storytelling to attack ‘the rulers of the land’.
“It takes its inspiration from the medieval mystery plays in which the local community are able to play out, through adaptations of biblical stories, both their rage and their hope.
“It follows York’s own mystery play tradition of finding how these ancient stories can be retold and usefully speak to us now. Mistero Buffo has a lot to say and does so in the funniest and most subversive of ways.”
Tickets for Mistero Buffo start from £11.50 for concessions, £16.50 for adults and are available via the Riding Lights website.
