Theater review by Melissa Rose Bernardo
In the 1925 court case United States v. Cartozian, the U.S. government sued to revoke the citizenship of a man named Tatos Cartozian, on the grounds that Armenians like him weren’t white. The Armenian-American playwright Talene Monahon has now worked that story into Meet the Cartozians, a sprawling, fascinating work of historical fiction that examines ethnicity, history and family legacy.
Monahon’s century-jumping play begins in 1923—not long after the Armenian genocide during World War I—in a stately Oregon home where the Cartozians’ high-priced lawyer, Wallace McCamant (Will Brill), is meeting with the family: Tatos (Nael Nacer, wonderfully reserved), his proper daughter (Tamara Sevunts, excellent), his boisterous son (Raffi Barsoumian) and his judgmental mother (the incomparable Andrea Martin, whose first line, “Mmhmm,” nearly brings down the house). McCamant has found anthropologists who will trace the Armenians’ origins to the Caucasus mountains (“the origins of the white race”) and praise “to the terrific tendency of Armenians to intermingle and procreate with white populations all over the world.” McCamant also plans to bring in “excellent Armenians” from the East Coast, who have light blue eyes and speak perfect English: “These folks have married into society. They belong to golf clubs, their children attend good schools.” That strategy may seem ludicrous today—not to mention troubling—but with citizenship at stake, does it matter if their lawyer takes a few dodgy roads?
Meet the Cartozians | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
After intermission, we flash forward to 2024, when four Californians are donning authentic Armenian attire—well, Hollywood’s idea of authentic Armenian attire—to appear in an episode of the hit reality TV show Meet the Cartozians. (Any similarities to the Kardashians are surely accidental.) They are only loosely acquainted: Nardek (Barsoumian) is a UCLA history professor and activist, originally from Tehran; Rose (Martin) is historian and philanthropist; local councilman Robert (Nacer) hopes the most famous Cartozian will remember him from a genocide commemoration event six years ago. Activist and artist Leslie (Susan Pourfar), who has come bearing boregs (flaky cheese-stuffed pastries) and simit (sesame-topped bread), is eager to plug her campaign for an Armenian representation in the Middle Eastern and North African category of the 2030 census—which sparks a drawn-out debate on geography, etymology and race. Rose: “For God’s sake, of course we’re white!” Nardek: “Umm, I personally would say that we are not.” Robert: “I mean, maybe we are...mostly white?”
Meet the Cartozians | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
Monahon’s previous work has spanned multiple genres: The Good John Proctor was a clever retelling of the Salem witch trials by adolescent girls, for example, and Jane Anger was a Jacobean revenge comedy. This time she has written an epic drama with an intimate feel: a deeply personal play with wide-ranging appeal. Director David Cromer knows how to draw in an audience, and his production for Second Stage does just that, even when the conversations go on a bit too long. When we finally do get to meet the modern Cartozian (Sevunts) everyone has been waiting for—she has been delayed by a “glam crisis,” forcing her cameraman (Brill) to start without her—she looks great (in Enver Chakartash’s gorgeous homage to a certain red-hooded Ambani wedding gown) but she doesn’t have a lot to say. Monahon does, though, and she leaves us with plenty to think about.
Meet the Cartozians. Pershing Square Signature Center (Off Broadway). By Talene Monahon. Directed by David Cromer. With Raffi Barsoumian, Will Brill, Andrea Martin, Nael Nacer, Susan Pourfar, Tamara Sevunts. Running time: 2hrs 30 mins. One intermission.
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Meet the Cartozians | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
