Enter the world of Armenian-Americans in “Meet the Cartozians”

12/03/2025

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This is a staged photograph of a dramatic indoor scene featuring four actors dressed in period clothing, centered around a table. In the immediate foreground on the right, the lower half of a figure in a deep red velvet dress is visible, with their hand reaching toward the table. An older man with a mustache is seated at the table, wearing a vest and trousers, leaning forward and eating from a dish while looking to the right. A younger man in suspenders, a grey shirt, and brown trousers stands behind the seated man, looking toward the far left. On the left side, an older woman with a traditional head covering is seated in a large armchair with a red and gold patterned blanket on her lap, looking down at her hands. The room features dark patterned walls, a wooden mantelpiece with lit candles, a fireplace grill, and two windows with sheer lace curtains, all resting on a large, patterned rug. 2025 — Will Brill, Tamara Sevunts, Andrea Martin, Raffi Barsoumian, Nael Nacer in "Meet the Cartesians" (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)

This is a photograph from a theatrical production, depicting an interior set that appears to be a well-furnished home from an earlier time period. The scene features three characters: a man in a vest and trousers standing on the left, holding an open folder or book; an older man in a vest and trousers seated on the right in a dark wooden armchair, facing the center of the room; and a woman seated in a rocking chair in the deep background, slightly out of focus, facing to the right and looking down. The set features patterned wallpaper, framed pictures on the walls, a closed door in the center, and a large patterned rug on the wooden floor. The lighting is dramatic, with a strong light source creating a sharp shadow on the back wall near the door. — Will Brill, Andrea Martin, Nael Nacer in “Meet the Cartesians” (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)

The Second Stage takes us on a century-long ride through the history of the Armenian people and their encounters with the American experience in Meet the Cartozians, a new play by Talene Monahon directed by Tony Award-winner David Cromer (Dead Outlaw; Good Night, and Good Luck).

Monahon, of Armenian ancestry herself, sets her first act in Portland, Oregon in 1923/1924. Tatos Cartozian (Nael Nacer), a seller and restorer of Middle Eastern carpets, finds himself at risk of having his citizenship revoked because of the color of his skin; immigration laws of the period used skin color as a criterion, favoring whites and African blacks. But Armenians, as a Middle Eastern (thus technically Asian) people, are not so easily classified, and Tatos’ skin color could lead to loss of his hard-earned, treasured American citizenship.

His lawyer, Wallace McCamant (Will Brill), is trying to get Tatos and his family — his mother Markrid (Andrea Martin), son Vahan (Raffi Barsoumian), and daughter Hazel (Tamara Sevunts) — to tone down or hide altogether anything Armenian that would look too alien to the court. McCamant, a third-generation, fully assimilated Irish-American, makes much out of the Cartozians’ religion, their cuisine, their tastes in clothing, even their business fliers (containing pictures of minarets, turbaned Turks, and “Mohammadans”) as being not American enough. He tries to equate the Irish Potato Famine, which sent waves of Irish (like his grandfather) to the United States, with the horrific Armenian genocide during World War I and the Turkish War of Independence that followed.

The second act is set in Glendale, California in 2024. Members of the Armenian-American community in southern California have been invited to be featured on the popular podcast “Meet the Cardozians, created by a popular influencer who is the granddaughter of Vahan Cartozian and who is seeking to reconnect with her Armenian roots. She has been delayed, so under the guidance of production assistant Alan O’Brien (Brill), the interviewees — Nardok Vartoumian (Barsoumian), a historian and ethnologist; Robert Zakian (Nacer), a city councilman; Rose Sarkisian (Martin), a long-time community organizer and activist; and Leslie Malconian (Susan Pourfar), who is pushing for “Armenian” to be added as an identifier in the upcoming Census — start by introducing themselves, but soon fall into squabbling about the importance of their individual concerns.

Andrea Martin, Raffi Barsoumian, Nael Nacer in “Meet the Cartesians” (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)

The strong identification with their own goals bring home the realization that, like most ethnic groupings in America, the Armenian community contains diverse points of view and differing ideas of which concerns should take priority. A later conversation between the late-arriving influencer (Sevunts), dressed in a scarlet-colored outfit based on Armenian style, and Zakian highlights the continuous balancing act between defining home as where you live now or where your people came from — a balancing act the Cartozians have been performing for a century.

Under Cromer’s direction, the cast shines. Bill Brill, as the Irish-American outsider in both stories, creates two men who while trying to be helpful end up showing their entitlement and privilege. Tamara Sevunts glows as the more-Americanized Hazel, a modern woman for her time, and the younger influencer trying to reconnect with a family heritage that she scarcely knows.

But the stand-out performance of Andrea Martin as the Cartozian matriarch, dressed in head-to-toe black, preparing Armenian specialties and reading the future in coffee grounds, and as Rose Sarkisian, the epitome of a woman who’s developed a spine of steel under a sweet grandmotherly exterior, with a no-nonsense voice and a take-no-prisoners attitude, are a wonder. She takes on two almost diametrically opposed characters and brings them both to glorious life. As do Raffi Barsoumian as the exuberant, emotional Vahan and the more restrained academic Nardek, Nael Nacer as the determined Tatos and the polished politician Robert, and Susan Pourfar as the single-minded Leslie and, in a short appearance, Tatos’ wife who suffered lasting mental trauma in the old country.

Scenic designer Tatiana Kahvegian has come up with two distinct sets. The Cartozian home in Portland is 1920s genteel, reflecting the successful business of the family, even though the Great Depression is coming soon. Leslie Malconian’s 2024 Glendale abode is spacious but cold, especially with the furnishings cleared out to make room for light screens and recording equipment. Both sets are realistically lit by Stacey Derosier. Costume designer Enver Chakartash successfully pulls off three sets of clothing — one for the Cartozians in the 1920s, one for the Armenian-Americans in the 2020s, and one of cartoonishly Armenian garb.

Meet the Cartozians provides a non-pedantic review of Armenian history — in the home country and in America. It also raises questions: What does it mean to be a “real” American? How much more American is the immigration lawyer than the hard-working immigrant family, the video influencer than those who work for the community, the one born here than the one who has traveled thousands of miles to be here? And just how far are you willing to go to realize your American dream? The answers are not handed to us, but an interesting, serious, yet humorous play is. I recommend you spend some time among the Armenians in America and accept the invitation to Meet the Cartozians!

Meet the Cartozians is presented by Second Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd St. in New York, through Dec. 14, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to 2st.com.