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Honorificabilitudinitatibus. Really. It is one of the head-scratching words in Shakespeare’s word-happy “Love’s Labor’s Lost,â€� now on stage at The Rogue Theatre in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

Shakespeare is renowned for his exuberant language, and it is packed into this play. Puns, sonnets and metaphors gallop through the comedy. Latin is mixed with often nonsensical sentences. Sometimes it can all seem a bit labored.

The play begins as the King of Navarre and three lords, Berowne, Longaville and Dumaine, take a vow to remain celibate and hungry for four years. This will result in life-changing revelations, they are sure. But when four women show up on a diplomatic mission, all vows go out the window.

This Joseph McGrath-directed production is populated with actors who are up to the often challenging language and are committed to the sometimes loony characters.

Such as Matt Walley as the buffoonish Don Armado, a Spaniard who falls in love with the wench Jaquenetta (Lisitte Mora, whose pliable face speaks volumes). Walley is in his element in his clownish roles, and he does not disappoint here.

But this play is packed with clowns that delight: Costard is a nervous, bumbling character played with relish by Evan Werner (and he smoothly uttered that word honorificabilitudinitatibus); John Keeney is perfect as the pedantic Holofernes, who mixes Latin into his phrases and takes arrogance to a new level, and even Berowne (Ryan Parker Knox), one of the men who takes that solemn oath.

While somewhat clownish, Knox also gave Berowne the romance and desperation befitting a man who just can’t take an oath of abstinence seriously.

It is the quartet of women in this play who are the clever ones as they make jest of the men who woo them and do just about everything possible to reject their advances while keeping them interested.

Bryn Booth is Rosaline, who is heavily pursued by Berowne. She had just the right amount of sparkle and flirtatiousness. Carley Elizabeth Preston gave weight to the Princess of France, and Chelsea Bowdren and Sophie Gibson-Rush showed the smarts and wit that mark all the women in this group.

“Love’s Labor’s� doesn’t get a lot of productions. Come on, a play that uses the word honorificabilitudinitatibus — a noun meaning the ability to achieve honors — and is thick with wordplay is clearly less accessible than other Shakespeare works.

This is a solid production of a play that lacks, shall we say, honorificabilitudinitatibus.

The Rogue Theatre’s “Love’s Labor’s Lost� continues through May 5 at 300 E. University Blvd. Tickets are $47 at or 520-551-2053. The play runs about 2½ hours, with one intermission.