Neil Simon can write jokes.

He did it for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” and for himself in two dozen original plays.

But the play that won him the Pulitzer Prize – and elevated him beyond simply a gag-meister – put those jokes alongside heart-rending family dysfunction. The laughter meant more when it followed tears – as it does in “Lost in Yonkers,” the final show of the season at The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls.

“Lost in Yonkers” plays through June 1, in a production directed by Pamela Moller Kareman.

Teenagers Jay and Arty are left with their stern grandmother in a small apartment over the family’s candy store in 1942 Yonkers. Their father, a widower, is on the road, selling scrap metal, a wartime commodity.

He hates to leave them. They hate to be left. Their grandmother hates having to help.

In true Simon fashion, there are odd relatives who appear.

“There’s something wrong with everyone in Pop’s family,” one of the boys says.

There’s a gangster uncle named Louie (Steve Perlmutter), an eccentric Aunt Gert (Marilyn Matarrese) who breathes out when she says the first half of a sentence and breathes in on the second half, and Bella (Cheryl Orsini), their loving aunt who admits “sometimes my mind wanders.”

And, of course, there is Grandma Kurnitz (Judy Stone), a frosty and scowling presence, ready, willing and still able to swing her cane ferociously to demand obedience. The temperature seems to dip in her presence. That might keep the boysenberry ice cream at the right temperature in the Kurnitz Kandy Store she owns downstairs, but it wreaks havoc on her family.

John Pollard’s set instantly evokes the period, with sconces and chandeliers, a window seat and a sofa and chair outfitted with antimacassars. Through the window, we see housetops and light poles.

David Pentz’s lighting is effective, but the lights came up rather gradually in different parts of the same room, which seemed odd.

Kareman has assembled a fine cast: Youngsters Gaspare DiBlasi (Jay) and Cody B. Kostro (Arty) impress as boys who have to make the best of a bad situation. Both have a flair for comedy and DiBlasi is particularly able to show us how Jay acts and reacts to all around him.

As their father, Eddie, Katonah resident Bruce Sabath, who was in the recent Broadway revival of “Company,” makes the most of what he’s given. As he tries to convince his mother to take care of the boys, he’s a whirling, sweating bundle of nervous energy, a fact that Grandma Kurnitz uses against him.

Steve Perlmutter seems to have stepped in from “The Sopranos” central casting. He’s too at ease for a man who’s being tailed by two guys in a Studebaker, but perhaps it’s all just an act – his character’s way of teaching his nephews about “moxie.”

Matarrese masters her character’s particular speech pattern well -and to full comic effect.

But this is a show about mother and daughter and Bella and Grandma are the two indelible characters, the Kurnitz women at the center of “Lost in Yonkers.”

For Bella, a 35-year-old woman with the mind of a 15-year-old, the world is as wonderful as an air-conditioned double feature on a sultry summer afternoon. She is all hope and wonder and optimism and she won’t allow herself to become jaded.

Orsini is an exceptional actress, allowing us a glimpse into Bella’s every scattered thought. We can see the gears turning in that pretty little head, even when she shifts gears on a dime. Orsini’s Bella is funny and loving and silly and a delight.

That such a rose could emerge from an icy woman like her mother, Grandma Kurnitz, is akin to an oak seed nestling its way into a cleft in a boulder and somehow putting down roots. It’s improbably, but possible.

Judy Stone’s portrayal of Grandma Kurnitz is demonstrative and uneven. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head and scowls aggressively. It’s a choice at odds with a character who is in such complete control. Wouldn’t a slight upturn of her chin, or a glance away, get the desired reaction?

Still, they are formidable women, these Kurnitzes.

In the play’s pivotal scene, fire and ice battle – Bella, who is passionate and wants only to be loved, begs for love and understanding from Grandma, who is incapable of either.

It is powerful stuff and reminds us that, even in the most improbable settings, if conditions are right, an oak’s outreaching roots can split a boulder.

No joke.

Photo by Ron Marotta /The Schoolhouse Theater: From left, Judy Stone, Cheryl Orsini, Marilyn Matarrese, Gaspare DiBlasi and Cody B. Kostro in Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers,” the season’s final production at the Schoolhouse Theater.

‘LOST IN YONKERS’
Where: The Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays through June 1.
Tickets: $25 on Thursdays and Fridays; $29 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Call: 914-277-8477.
With: Cheryl Orsini, Judy Stone, Gaspare DiBlasi, Cody B. Kostro, Steve Perlmutter, Bruce Sabath, Marilyn Matarrese.