In the districts of Gruyère, Veveyse and Sarine, plays in patois are performed every year. They bring together an audience and actors from the region around the Fribourg patois, a language of Franco-Provençal origin. The action generally involves few characters and takes place in familiar surroundings. The amateur actors are either patois speakers or are learning to pronounce the language correctly. Some of today's playwrights are creating new works, thus ensuring the renewal of the theatrical repertoire in patois.

The first plays in patois were written around 1920 by Fribourg authors Cyprien Ruffieux, Fernand Ruffieux, Joseph Yerly, Pierre Quartenoud, Abbé François-Xavier Brodard and Francis Brodard. These were village dramas, scenes from the chalet, staged legends and musicals to tunes by Abbé Bovet. As the patois associations did not yet exist (they were founded between 1956 and 1984), the youth societies, the Costumes and Customs groups, and the singing and music societies organised the performances, sometimes as the second half of the annual concert or a lottery.

Patois-language theatre is still very much alive in the canton, and there is no shortage of audiences or new talent. The main groups in the canton that perform plays in dialect are la jeunesse de Cerniat (which creates and performs its own plays every 2-3 years or so), the theatre group Groupe Choral Intyamon in Albeuve (theatre and singing), La Tropa dou Dzubyà in Sorens, les patoisants de la Sarine, Intrè-Node Fribourg, les patoisants de la Gruyère, les patoisants de la Veveyse and the Tsêrdziniolè group in Treyvaux. Other troupes may also include a play in patois in their annual programme.