Jason Odell Williams’ smart and fresh comedy, “Handle with Care,” recently had a long run off-Broadway. Actors’ Summit, a Knight Arts grantee, got the rights to produce the play as the regional premiere of the work while the New York production was still live. That’s pretty cool.

It’s an amazingly fun and beguiling comedy, getting its comedic kick from a series of misunderstandings and bungling – all presented by a gifted cast.

Arthur Chu, Keith Stevens, Natalie Sander Kern and Marci Paolucci, cast of “Handle with Care.” Photo courtesy of Actors’ Summit

The story has to do with a young Jewish/Israeli woman, Ayelet (played with abundant charm by Natalie Sander Kern), and her grandmother (done with a slightly world-weary yet lively tone by Marci Paolucci), on a trip to the United States – ostensibly because the granddaughter was having emotional difficulties and needing the outing, but actually because grandma was chasing down the dream of finding her first (and lost) love.

Confusion arises after the grandmother dies in a small-town motel. Terrence, the driver assigned to take the coffin and body to the airport (played with a cute southern swagger by Arthur Chu) loses the body en route.

Natalie Sander Kern and Marci Paolucci, “Handle with Care.” Photo courtesy of Actors’ Summit

More confusion comes because Ayelet can’t speak English much. She rattles her frustration and anger in Hebrew, aiming it all at a bewildered Terrence. To solve the problem, Terrence calls up friend Josh (played with a sure-handed second-banana flair by Keith E. Stevens), who, though Jewish, knows very little Hebrew.

A good deal of the fun of the play comes from the verbal misunderstandings as the characters both try to solve the mystery of the missing body and find it while getting to know one another.

The play ends – as comedies will – with everything working out well and young love and happiness in the making. Through flashback scenes between the grandmother and her granddaughter we learn of the grandmother Edna’s yearning to find the man she once loved. She doesn’t. He died some months earlier, but it turns out his grandson is none other than Josh.

There’s strong stage chemistry between Kern’s Ayelet and Steven’s Josh. It seems that they are indeed meant to be, for the scenes depicting their growing interest in one another are compelling.

The single set of the budget motel room functions well to underline action and theme. Grandma doesn’t exactly know where her love interest lives; she only knows that he works for the grocery chain Foodline. So the women move regularly from place to place while she searches.

In the middle of the room is a poster declaring “Virginia is for Lovers” – a low-level but apt symbol of the love that compels the characters as the play proceeds.

Kudos to Hebrew coach Oudi Singer, with whom Actors’ Summit Senior Artistic Associate and director of this production, Constance Thackaberry, worked. Most audience members, one suspects, won’t have a clue if Kern is accurate in her Hebrew. But they will notice that she speaks convincingly and switches back and forth between the two languages realistically. It is an amazing performance from her in that regard.

Jason Odell Williams’ “Handle with Care” will be performed at 8 p.m. from Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday through April 13 at Actor’s Summit’s theater in Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St., Akron; 330-374-7568; www.actorssummit.org. Tickets are $33 with discounts for seniors and students.