Small town Georgia, 1936. Juke joints sit alongside churches and graveyards, and someone’s made a deal with the Devil. The only question is: who? Covenant, now playing at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, explores the dark paths that faith can take. Directed by Malkia Stampley and featuring an all-Chicago cast, this darkly funny folk horror will have you screaming in your seat.
“Everything started with him.”
Johnny “Honeycomb” James (Debo Balogun) is back in town, and the former stutterer has glowed up into a sexy, successful blues musician. He’s here to tempt beautiful, devout Avery (Jaeda LaVonne) out on the road with him—but not if her strict God-fearing Mama (Anji White) has anything to do with it.
Meanwhile, Avery’s teenage sister Violet (Felicia Oduh) and her best friend Ruthie (Ashli René Funches) sneak moonshine and share gossip: two years ago, Johnny was seen in the local graveyard negotiating with a darker force. Mama says “the spirit world is like water”—angels and demons flow in equal measure, and as all will learn, it’s hard to distinguish the two until it’s too late.
From beginning to end, Covenant is a vibe. As Ruthie notes, “everybody got a secret,” and playwright York Walker (a Chicago native and inaugural winner of Vineyard Theatre’s Colman Domingo Award) artfully intersperses each character’s traumatic, revelatory monologues with fraught interactions. The spirits, as it turns out, don’t wait for an invitation. Helping seal the deal, Justin Ellington’s original score is equal parts hand-clapping and terrifying, and Ryan Emens’ simple set piece of a wood structure with a large cross on the wall feels ominous from the outset.
Stampley has assembled a terrific female-driven ensemble, whose biggest standout is Funches. As Ruthie, a 19-year-old “heathen” (Mama’s words) without faith, family, or music to guide her, Funches strikes a perfect balance of lost lamb and woman on the verge, desperate to go deeper than blind faith, at any price.
Penned with a spectacular twist, Covenant takes a hard look at the lifelong jump scare of generational trauma and reinforces the age-old cliché: be careful what you wish for.
It wants better content.
Is ‘Covenant’ worth seeing?
Wickedly crafted and devilishly funny, Covenant is folk horror that earns every scream—and a few you won’t see coming.
- Goodman Theatre’s Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
- Notable performances: Debo Balogun, Ashli René Funches, Jaeda LaVonne, Felicia Oduh
- Running time: Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes with no intermission
- Performances through May 31, 2026
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