Five male students at the University of the Nine Worthies are facing a dilemma.

The five friends, Ferdinand, Longeville, Hawthorne, Dumain and Berowne, had been having a good time at college until Ferdinand convinced the others they needed to buckle down and focus on their education. As a result, all five students swore off their party lifestyle and the dating scene until graduation.

However, they are finding themselves falling in love with five young women who have just arrived on campus.

“I will not love: if I do, hang me; i’ faith, I will not,” Berowne said. “O, but her eye,—by this light, but for Rosaline’s eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme.”

The annual Shakespeare play opens next week. This year’s production is the comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”

Aside from adding another couple into the story—Shakespeare’s original play only had four lords and ladies—director Mary Mastandrea adopted another setting for the play, as is often the case for Shakespeare productions. “Love’s Labour’s Lost” tells the story of a group of men who end up falling in love while trying to throw themselves into their studies. Mastandrea’s production is set at an all-male university in the year of 1929.

“One of the things that goes on in ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ that I don’t love is how the women feel they are the men’s girlfriends because they end up coupling off,” Mastandrea said. “I didn’t think that was interesting enough for a female. I didn’t want her to be just an appendage of a guy. And so I thought 1920s. Women were really coming to their own in that decade.”

According to Mastandrea, the main reason for choosing “Love’s Labour’s Lost” was the large number of female characters. The decision of the play usually hinges on the strengths of the perspective actors, she said.

“I think about who I am going to have for kids next year, and who I think will audition. I try to pick a show which will speak to their specific talents,” she said. “This year I have a lot of upperclassmen who sing, so I thought, ‘Okay, let me see if I can find a show that I can incorporate singing into.’”

Senior Rachel Speyer Besancon, one of the lead actresses, said that she thinks the musical aspects of the play will be interesting to watch.

“We’ve got some a capella barbershop quartet-esque singing going on,” she said. “There’s a Russian dance number because the men come in dressed up as Russian Muscovites and try to woo the women. It’s a very funny scene.”

According to senior B Mast, one of the lead actors, something that sets “Love’s Labour’s Lost” apart from other Shakespearean plays is its unique diction.

“What is really cool about ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ is that it has some of the most intricate language I’ve ever seen in Shakespeare,” he said. “There is a jovial sense to the language. There’s a lot of word play, a lot of banter, and it really promotes chemistry amongst the actors.”

Mastandrea also said that this play holds a special place in its genre of comedy, thanks to a twist that she will not reveal.

“You think it’s going to be one genre while you’re watching it,” Mastandrea said. “It seems like a not-particularly-unusual case of mismatched couples who then find each other, or love being thwarted but it works out. And then something very interesting happens at the very end of the play that changes that; it really makes it stand out from other comedies.”

“Love’s Labour’s Lost” will premiere on Nov. 5 at 3:30 p.m. in the Roberts-Dubbs Auditorium and will run from Nov. 6 through 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Roberts-Dubbs Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased here.

Jason Lammers contributed reporting. Ashley Lee can be contacted at [email protected].