By Lucy Komisar
Talene Monahon’s piercing new play, “Meet the Cartozians,” is not merely a family drama; it is a forensic and often ferociously funny excavation of the American experiment itself. Under David Cromer’s meticulously calibrated direction, the work dissects a century of racial bargaining, cultural performance, and the enduring ache of identity forged in the crucible of a hostile state.
Monahon, writing from her Armenian heritage, constructs a diptych of desperation and dissonance. The first act, set in a modest 1923 Portland home (evocatively rendered by designer Tatiana Kahvegian), is a masterclass in historical connections. Tatos (a superb, wire-taut Naer Nacer) faces the unmaking of his American life. Having been naturalized, he was the target of a federal lawsuit that revoked his citizenship based on “racial ineligibility”—Armenians, the court decide, are neither “white” nor “black.” This is a true story.
In the play, the grim legal circus that ensues, orchestrated by his attorney Wallace McCamant (Will Brill, in a performance of slick, staggering hypocrisy), arguing that Cartozian was white, lays bare the vulgar mechanics of whiteness. McCamant’s strategy—employing phrenology, anthropological jargon, and class prejudice—is played not as broad satire but with a chilling, procedural normalcy that echoes far beyond the cherry-wood confines of the set. The great Andrea Martin, as the family matriarch, provides a beating heart and deft comic relief, her offering of sweets a poignant counter-ritual to the dehumanizing legal proceedings. It’s history: Cartozian wins the case.
Then, in a breathtaking temporal leap, Cromer and Monahon transport us to a sterile video studio in Glendale, Calif., which has the largest Armenian population in America. It is 2024 and a celebrity influencer doing a Christmas special has invited some successful, “hyphenated” Americans their ancestors fought to become: a councilman, a professor, an activist, and the head of the Armenian historical association.
They await a vapid reality TV host being worked on by her “glam” team. Yet, as they don traditional garments for the cameras, the same essential debate erupts: What are we, here?
Should they check “white” on the census? The arguments are academic, personal, and painfully political. Is Armenia Europe or SWANA? Professor Nardek argues the Middle East phrase is outdated and colonialist, “It identifies all these countries solely through their geographical relationship to Europe. The term literally centers Europe. He prefers “SWANA” – SouthWest Asian and North African. Rose is not happy.
Nardek (a compelling Raffi Barsoumian) delivers a searing monologue about being “not white at the airport,” a reality that collides with his perceived privilege in academia. The writing here is razor-sharp, capturing the exhausting, circular nature of modern identity politics where community solidarity fractures on the rocks of ideology and personal experience.
The genius of “Meet the Cartozians” lies in its unresolved tension. It offers no easy answers, only the glaring continuity of the question. The promised TV host (Tamara Sevunts), when she finally slinks in, is a perfect, empty symbol of the reductionist culture the characters both crave and condemn. The play suggests that the American bargain—trade your specificity for acceptance, but never fully be accepted—is a haunting that spans generations.
This is vital, provocative theater. Monahon’s script is clever, yes, but it is also profound and deeply felt. Cromer’s staging is flawless, balancing the poignant intimacy of family against the cold gaze of the state and the media. The ensemble, playing dual roles across the century, is uniformly excellent, navigating both period restraint and contemporary angst with equal conviction.
“Meet the Cartozians” is more than a history lesson; it is a mirror held up to the ongoing, often brutal, performance of belonging, an essential play for a country of immigrants.
“Meet the Cartozians.” Written by Talene Monahon, directed by David Cromer. At 2ndStage, Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd St, NYC. Opened Nov 17, 2025, closes Dec 7, 2025. Runtime: 2hrs 30min.