In the 1925 Oregon District Court case, United States v. Cartozian, Tatos Cartozian and his family argued that they, and by extension all Armenians in America, should be considered “white,” driven by the purpose to gain citizenship, per the Founding Fathers’ conception of only white men being full citizens with rights.

Along with the 1915 US Court of Appeals fourth circuit case Dow v. United States, in which a Syrian man successfully argued to be considered as “white,” these cases resulted in us peoples of Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA ) descent to be considered “white” until recently, now that a “Middle East and North African” (MENA) category is making its way into the census at state and federal levels. United States v. Cartozian was a supremely significant case for the Armenians in America, who had just experienced the Ottoman Empire’s (modern-day “Turkey”) genocide of their people and ethnic cleansing of western Armenia, requiring many of them to find refuge worldwide, including in America.

Reverberating to today and setting the stage for many communal dynamics, the court case is the primary lens for Armenian American Talene Monahon’s sublime new play, Meet the Cartozians, now playing at New York City’s Second Stage Theater.

With Act I focusing on the Cartozian family and Act II exploring the dynamics of modern Armenian-Americans, the play incisively communicates and honors the Armenian experience. Filled with consistent wit, emotional depth, set and costumes design incorporating the richness of Armenian traditions, superb performances from all the cast members, and excellent direction from David Cromer, Meet the Cartozians incorporates the complexity, tragedy, humor, and love inherent in the Armenian experience since at least the early 1900s.  Whether you’re Armenian, Kurdish like myself, West Asian more broadly, or from outside our communities, your understanding of the world will benefit deeply from watching Meet the Cartozians, including laughing and crying along to Monahon’s stirring, incisive, and beautiful prose.

Monahon does an excellent job of portraying a wide range of Armenian-American perspectives and experiences, from the 1920s to today. How should Armenians be trying to, or not to, acclimate to American society? Is being considered “white” all it’s cracked up to be in America, especially if it means shedding aspects of your Armenian or other West Asian culture? Can you somehow appropriate elements of your own culture as a costume for the Western gaze? How do older and younger generations perceive their communal struggle? Should they be more American Christian and even change the date of Armenian Christmas, even though Armenia is the longest existing predominantly Christian nation in world history?

It’s not necessarily about validating all perspectives, and certainly not those that are clearly presented as problematic, but about providing insight into her audience’s community. With Armenian representation almost nonexistent in English-language fiction, Monahon makes great efforts to include as much as she can, and the results are wonderful to watch as the cast delivers her incisive love letter to her community, whether they’re speaking English or Armenian. In many ways, Meet the Cartozians is a sister play to Iranian American Sanaz Toossi’s brilliant Tony-nominated play English, which also masterfully explores the tensions for Iranians moving to Western countries.

Perhaps most consistently, Monahon’s work highlights the absurdities and contradictions of whiteness. Impressively, she manages to delineate how other groups, like the Irish, Italians, and other select groups of Europeans, weren’t considered “white” in America due to their distinct cultural practices. We increasingly understand that race is ultimately a social construct, one that still matters as we incorporate more distinct Black, brown, and Indigenous perspectives in society and storytelling, but one that cannot incorporate the sheer variety of human experience, as Monahon expertly understands.

Across the SWANA region, from Armenia to Yemen, from Afghanistan to Palestine, from Egypt to Sudan and Mauritania, we have quite literally all skin tones and appearances, ranging from the darkest to the lightest to those with more or less Eurocentric features. Yet no matter how white-passing someone from the region is, they remain culturally distinct from most things European. Because that’s what matters most. Our families internally have these diverse appearances, such as the Cartozians themselves, as Monahon and Cromer show on stage. But our cultural spectrum remains a shared tapestry, with cultural diffusion and intermixing a mere fact of the history and present day of SWANA. In addressing this, Monahon masterfully conveys the overarching experience of many, if not most, SWANA families in the diaspora through the specific lens of the Armenians.

Raffi Barsoumian (of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow fame) is phenomenally heartbreaking, hilarious, and fierce in his role as Vahan Cartozian, effortlessly switching to the quieter but equally passionate Nardek Vartoumian. With both roles showcasing the struggles of a clearly visible brown man in American society, including the racism, Orientalism, and Islamophobia (on a devout Christian man!) thrust on these men just trying to do their best in a system designed to keep them down. While most characters, through their various actions and stated perspectives, convey the absurdity of whiteness, Barsoumian’s characters, simply by how he looks and the way he and other characters convey that experience, present that absurdity in the sharpest way. Through his riveting performances and Cromer’s on-point direction of his emotional journeys, Barsoumian will break your heart in the best way.

Armenian American screen legend Andrea Martin will also break your heart at points, but with far more laughs in her numerous zingers in her dual roles as matriarch Makrid Cartozian and modern-day community leader Rose Sarkasian. Martin consistently (and to be honest, as expected given her incredible record of work) chews up the scenery and beautifully conveys the rich emotional depth and experiences of both characters. In many ways, Makrid and Rose embody the same archetype: a protective grandmother who cares deeply for her family and younger generations but doesn’t necessarily know the best way to go about it. With abundant love and a high level of confidence that she knows best, Martin embodies the matriarchal figure many of us know, love, and revere, and who often annoys us with her outdated perspectives. With this being Martin’s first prominent Armenian role, finally playing a character with her background, it’s a gift that she shares in abundance with her adoring audience.

Susan Pourfar has a small but highly pivotal and emotionally stirring role in Act I, in which she conveys immense depth in the few minutes she’s afforded. It’s a testament to her talent that we see on fuller display in Act II as she plays Leslie Malconian, a spirited activist who finds herself at odds with more conservative elements of her society. In this, she masterfully communicates the generational change in the perspective of younger Armenians who face systemic racism and ostracization. Their parents (like in many other SWANA diaspora communities) may want them to accept what they’ve gained within the system, but with the injustices of the system increasingly pressing, including with Azerbaijan’s recent ethnic cleansing of the Armenian enclave Artsakh, voices like Leslie’s are increasingly necessary, as Monahon and Pourfar make clear.

Tamara Sevunts is tender yet fierce in her role as Hazel Cartozian, a devout daughter who takes on numerous responsibilities for her family, as most Armenian and other SWANA women undertake. With so much thrust on her, yet carrying it all with grace, Sevunts shines as Hazel. While she has a small role in Act II, like Pourfar’s, it is also pivotal in fictionalizing a character based on a key figure in modern Armenian America (I’m sure you can guess based on the play’s title). For better or worse, as the play delineates, that figure is pivotal for the community and represents at least some of the dynamics they must continue to work through.

Nael Nacer plays Tasos Cartozian as a dignified yet desperate man who wants to do right by his family amid the absurdities of the American immigration system. A man proud of his culture yet being told by his lawyer (Will Brill) to subdue his cultural distinction, it is heartbreaking to watch him as he grapples with the conundrum thrust on him and his family by American racism and Orientalism, as so many other Armenian and SWANA peoples have had to do. As the modern Robert Zakian in Act II, he acts as a spiritual continuation of Tasos, another Armenian man grappling with the trauma of the genocide, ethnic erasure, and displacement of his community. The lasting wounds are ever-present as Armenia remains under genocidal threat and as Armenians still have had virtually no justice for the early 1900s genocide. Yet, as Nacer and the whole cast convey, the Armenian community remains ever resilient, strong, and proud of their people and culture.

Brill is excellent as the Cartozians’ lawyer and the modern-day documentary filmmaker, embodying the casualness of white racism against Armenians and West Asians. In ostensibly helping the Cartozian family with their court case, he is ultimately their antagonist, forcing them to increasingly shed their unique cultural heritage, especially after the Armenian Genocide. It’s a brilliant balance that Monahon achieves here, wherein the audience understands why he goes about this route, while also despising the systemic racism, Orientalism, and Islamophobia (again, they’re Christians whose regional neighbors are predominantly Muslim, including horrifically their Ottoman oppressors) that he represents.

The scenic design by Tatiana Kahvegian and costume design by Enver Chakartash are consistently on point and integral to the storytelling. The way the clothes are used in Act II for the ‘documentary’ particularly explores how to go about cultural presentation and the performance of doing so, something many of us in the diaspora experience. From the Armenian deserts to tea, rugs, and beautiful clothing, they transport the audience into an Armenian home and community, warmly inviting you to be part of it all.

Meet the Cartozians is a magnificent hallmark of Armenian storytelling and elevates it to a profound level in the American theater scene. With a highly informative and emotional script from Monahon, superb direction from Cromer, riveting performances from the cast, and excellent set and costume design from Kahvegian and Chakartash, you must rush to see it at Second Stage Theater if you’re in New York City. I fervently hope many more go to see it, and understand the Armenian history they were never taught, and thus find the courage to protect Armenia and its people today.

Rating: A+

Meet the Cartozians is now playing at New York City’s Second Stage Theater until December 14, 2025