MONMOUTH — William Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 8, at the Theater at Monmouth.

King Ferdinand and his fellow scholars swear an oath devoting themselves to reading, writing and abstaining from food, alcohol and women for three years. How inconvenient, then, that the beautiful Princess of France and her ladies-in-waiting show up to make keeping the oath more difficult than they thought.

This production is set in the 1960’s at Cambridge University fueling the love, power and feminism that shake up the stage in this courtship comedy. In typical Shakespearean fashion, letters of love go misdirected, outrageous disguises are donned and soulful soliloquies overheard — until a twist of fate forces the men to keep their vows.

“Shakespeare quadruples down on the boy-meets-girl plot and the payoff is a comedy of sexual politics that may be transported nearly 400 years into the future and still illuminate the eternal debate between men and women,” said Director Dawn McAndrews. “There’s a play within the play and a gaggle of fools to keep the humor bouncing. But more than anything else, ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ is a play about the velocity, veracity and verbosity of language.”

“Love’s Labour’s Lost” features Rob Glauz as King Ferdinand; Jake Loewenthal as Longaville; Tim Kopacz as Dumaine; Chris White as Berowne; Christopher Holt as Dull; Lucas Calzada as Costard; Bill Van Horn as Don Armado; Michael Pullen as Mote; Isabella Etro as Jaquenetta/Maria; James Hoban as Boyet; Erica Murphy as Princess; Kelsey Burke as Katharine; Blythe Coons as Rosaline; Joe Mariani as First Lord/Mercade; Mark Cartier as Sir Nathaniel; and Janis Stevens as Holofernes.

Set design is by Dan Bilodeau, costume design by Elizabeth Rocha, lighting design by Matthew Adelson, sound design by Rew Tippin and fight direction by Leighton Samuels.