The road trip as a means of finding oneself and repairing relationships is a theme that’s as old as the Black Hills of South Dakota. Yet, audiences continue to flock to the road trip story time after time, especially when it is told with grace and charm.

Such is the case with 26 Miles, Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company’s new production playing through October 23 at downtown’s 10th Avenue Theatre. The story’s an well-worn one but the skill with which it’s told makes everything new again.

Olivia (Hannah Rose Kornfeld) is 14 and lives with her dad (Jacob Bruce) after his breakup with her mother (Cassie Benavidez). But, Dad has remarried, times are tough, and Olivia feels unwelcome in her home. Feeling rejected by her father when she comes to him during a fit of vomiting, Olivia turns to her mother. Mom borrows her live-in boyfriend’s (Raul Cardona) car, picks up Olivia, and starts driving. The pair soon find themselves in Ohio, and as Olivia has never traveled outside of the Philadelphia area, they decide to keep heading west, through those self-same Black Hills, and eventually ending in the beautiful National Parks area of Wyoming.

Of course, during the trip, details of their relationships emerge. Olivia’s adolescence is weighing on her heavily, and her dad, who has been her rock, is distracted with his job and relationship woes. Mom, a big personality who originally hailed from Cuba, has been lonely and feels rejected by Olivia’s choice to live with her dad. The play focuses mostly on its two women, and actors playing the men in their lives also portray incidental characters they meet along the way.

Author Quiara Alegría Hudes (who wrote the book for the hit musical, In the Heights) compares relationships to the plate tectonics movements of the earth as it uneasily searches for stasis and sometimes erupts in earthquakes. The theme is carried out in the story, as Olivia has an interest in geology and, it turns out, also has a special place that she found by poring over her dad’s collection of National Geographic magazines. It is no surprise that the 90-minute, no intermission, piece climaxes when Olivia and her mom find the place in the photo.

Ms. Hudes’ plot plods a bit in the set up but builds nicely once the road trip gets underway. The ultimately dramatic story is told with a good deal of humor, and the revelations between the two women serve to cement their affection, if not love. The men turn out to be more charming than they seemed early on, and Ms. Hudes makes nice use of the cultural milieu of 1986, when the play is set.

Scenes shift quickly in cinematic fashion, and Seema Sueko, Mo’olelo’s artistic director, compensates by using a simple production design (by David F. Weiner) that relies heavily on lighting changes (Chris Rynne, doing high quality work as usual) and fairly literal projections (by Marilia Maschion). There are some clever effects that result (sets of stairs turn into a library via projections), but as a large screen dominates the scene the feeling is of film actors playing for the camera in front of a green screen. To me, it was a little off-putting; to others the effect may be fine.

Ms. Sueko has cast the production exceptionally well, and the actors fit their parts like well-worn gloves. Seventeen-year-old Ms. Kornfeld, so good as Red Riding Hood in James Vasquez’ production of Into the Woods at New Village Arts, catches Olivia’s quick mood swings, as well as her intelligence and essential goodness. Her performance effectively modulates Ms. Benavidez, whose early scenes played a bit too over-the-top in search of comedy. Mr. Bruce has a character who is supportive but distracted and then won’t take phone calls, even though Olivia keeps leaving messages. Psychologically, his character isn’t well developed, though Mom’s stories about her relationship with Dad fill in the gaps fairly well. Mr. Cardona has an even less well-developed character to play, but he gets a chance to shine in his cameo roles.

Mo’olelo has developed a reputation for doing high quality work, and its excellence was recently recognized via a very competitive challenge grant from the American Theatre Wing, the people who produce the Tony™ Awards. The company has only produced two shows per year, which makes it hard to get on the radar of all but the most devoted theatre-lovers in town. Now, it has announced an expansion to three shows in 2012. If you love good theatre, here’s a chance to check out a company that’s coming into its own.

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