'As You Like It' delivers wit and romance on the Common

The use of outright deception doesn’t seem like a winning recipe for love, but in William Shakespeare’s tale “As You Like It,” somehow, despite it, true devotion prevails.

The free show, produced this summer by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (through Aug. 10), finds Rosalind and her cousin Celia fleeing to the woods after Rosalind’s father, Duke Senior’s, kingdom was seized by his brother, Duke Frederick. Before the two head to the Forest of Arden, Rosalind falls in love with Orlando after she sees him win a fight. She gives him a chain to wear, and he, too, is smitten. While traveling to the woods, Rosalind disguises herself as a man called Ganymede, and Celia changes her name to Aliena.

CSC can usually be counted on to assemble a great cast for their free annual Shakespearean offering on the Boston Common, and this year is no different. The stellar ensemble — directed by the company’s founder, Steven Maler — is full of talent, including the wonderful Nora Eschenheimer as Rosalind; Joshua Olumide, who starred in last year’s “A Winter’s Tale,” portrays Oliver; and Maurice Emmanuel Parent, with remarkable presence, renders both Dukes excellently.

Throughout the show, the ensemble members shine. Parent commands attention during an angry scene where he, as Duke Frederick, accuses Rosalind of treachery, banishes her, and threatens to kill her if she is found near the court. Clara Hevia lights up the stage when bursting with glee for her cousin’s newfound beau, running around the forest — beautifully depicted by scenic designer Riw Rakkulchon — teasing Rosalind good-naturedly.

But it’s the physicality of the show that makes the production sing a little louder. When Rosalind and Orlando’s love kindles, their bodies cave in toward one another. One of the show’s best moments, though, comes from Touchstone, a hilarious John Kuntz, who has starred in CSC’s “The Tempest” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” and Audrey, rendered by the equally funny Kandyce Whittingham (“The Grove” and CSC’s “Macbeth”). The two characters have a super-hot, yet comical scene where they express their desires through raucous, romp-like choreography crafted by Peter DiMuro, who leads The Dance Complex in Cambridge.

There’s much to mine from the work of the singular playwright William Shakespeare. Throughout his body of work, plays are filled with seized kingdoms, unfaithful queens, the flourishing of fresh love, and deceit aplenty. However, there’s also comic relief, music, and delightful double entendres in these tales that often offer some moral lesson or a deeper exploration of humanity. Per usual, in “As You Like It,” all of Shakespeare’s literary tools are at play, pulling audiences into the turmoil that is new love, and digging into gender and masculinity with Rosalind dressing and acting like a man. As Ganymede, Rosalind befriends Orlando (Michael Underhill) and gets to know him in a different capacity.

A lot of other shenanigans occur before the show wraps up, in a play where there’s more love than war and hate. There are wrongs that need to be made right, identities that need to be revealed, and an epilogue that needs to be shared.

And, though “As You Like It” isn’t one of my favorite Shakespeare narratives, the cast and the entire creative team — particularly costume designer Miranda Giurleo, who presented various approaches to the traditional blazer and outfitted the cast in flowered overalls and beautiful patchwork pants — worked together to bring another accessible, fun offering to audiences under summer’s night skies.

And together, crowded before a stage, is always a worthy place to be.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “As You Like It” runs through Aug. 10 on the Boston Common. Performances are free of charge.