Goodman’s scary good ‘Covenant’ animated by desire, faith and repression

“Covenant” — 3.5 stars

Paramount Theatre’s “Covenant” loss was Goodman Theatre’s gain.

In early 2025, the Aurora theater announced York Walker’s supernatural thriller would make its Chicago-area premiere as part of its 2025-2026 Bold series. Six months later, Paramount was forced to cancel the series because of “widespread budgetary constraints.”

That left “Covenant,” director Malkia Stampley and her cast without a stage.

Enter Goodman, which added the play to its centennial season while retaining Stampley and the actors Paramount artistic producer and casting director Trent Stork originally cast.

Wise decision that. Stampley’s fervent, sure-handed direction and her fiercely committed actors are ideally suited to Walker’s “Covenant.”

Animated by desire, faith and repression, the play begins with a thunderclap and a confession.

“Everybody got a secret,” whispers the young Black woman enveloped by darkness.

Secrets are at the heart of Walker’s Southern Gothic tale inspired by the myth surrounding bluesman Robert Johnson, said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for talent.

The action unfolds in 1936, in the small Georgia town Johnny “Honeycomb” James (Debo Balogun) once called home. Two years earlier, Johnny — a stammering, aspiring musician — left to pursue his dream. He returns a smooth-talking guitar master, rumored to have made a Robert Johnson-style deal.

His romantic pursuit of childhood friend Avery (Jaeda Lavonne) causes a rift between the young woman and her God-fearing Mama (Anji White, who is as frightening as she is funny), who Avery desperately wants to escape, even if it means leaving behind beloved younger sister Violet (Felicia Oduh) and friend Ruthie (the droll yet vulnerable Ashli René Funches).

Confounding expectations, Walker centers the story around the women. In one electrifying scene revealing how closely faith and art intertwine, he artfully juxtaposes the religious ecstasy they experience during evening prayers with the passion Johnny feels playing the blues.

For a play crafted to scare — one scene in particular elicited outcries from the audience opening night — “Covenant” delivers plenty of laughs, most courtesy of White and Funches.

Walker is a generous and vivid writer who gifts each character with a soul-bearing monologue. One compares a secret to “a hot iron rod through your soul … spilling over with sin.” Another describes cemetery grounds as “soft as a wet paper bag” and the devil as a man whose skin is “smooth like milk-laced honey.”

Ryan Emens’ austere set is dominated by a lonely cabin in the middle of a cornfield surrounded by trees whose branches suggest a demon extending its talons to claim a victim. And Gina Patterson’s murky lighting and Dee Etti-Williams’ sinister sound design are an appropriately foreboding complement to Walker’s nightmarish tale.

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Location: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (312) 443-3800, goodmantheatre.org

Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through May 31. Also 2 p.m. May 28

Running time: About 90 minutes, no intermission

Tickets: $24-$64

Parking: Nearby garages; discounted parking with Goodman Theatre validation at the Government Center Self Park at Clark and Lake streets

Rating: For adults; includes sexual content and violence