Review: Covenant Is a Spooky Horror Play for the Halloween Season

Roundabout Underground’s latest production, Covenant by York Walker, arrives just in time for Halloween. Undeniably spooky, with clear inspiration from horror classics like The Exorcist, Walker’s play is set in 1936 Georgia and follows the devilish goings-on in a family when one of their own returns to town transformed after years away.

Mama (Crystal Dickinson), her bold and beautiful eldest daughter Avery (Jade Payton), her meek sister Violet (Ashley N. Hildreth), and Violet’s friend Ruthie (Lark White), are welcoming back Avery’s sweetheart Johnny (Chaundre Hall-Broomfield). While gone, Johnny got rid of a stutter and became a gifted guitarist and singer. His radical metamorphosis (on the heels of his swift departure) prompts gossip in the town, with several accusing him of selling his soul to the devil for musical abilities. But as the play goes on, we learn that the devil may be lurking in more ways than one.

Despite being staged in Roundabout’s small basement Black Box Theatre, the design team of Covenant achieves expert atmospheric work. The set, by Lawrence E. Moten III, features dingy church windows and creaky wooden doors that open and close by themselves (Steve Cuiffo’s illusions are quite impressive throughout). Much of the play is steeped in religious fervor, and the set is a constant reminder of its heavy presence in these characters’ lives. Cha See’s lighting design is masterful, making the most out of the space and fully embracing the horror with lightning strikes, sudden blackouts, and effective moments of total darkness.

There are strong performances from Hildreth, Hall-Broomfield, and particularly Dickinson, who has proven her versatility as an actor. The trio often find comedy in the Walker’s script, especially in the beginning, which tonally helps make the shift to horror all the more impactful.

Horror is not a popular genre for the theater and yet it can be extremely effective. Though some productions mostly just embrace filmic jump scares (Grey House) or gore (American Psycho), and many lean into camp (Bat Boy, Little Shop of Horrors), others draw on the gothic’s potential to comment on important themes about trauma, prejudice, psychology, and identity (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, The Thin Place, The Crucible). Of these, Covenant owes the most to The Crucible, and the two plays share a great deal of similarities. Namely, both include constant accusations of characters being in cahoots with the devil, which subsequently leads to religious mania and paranoia.

That said, while The Crucible uses this to comment on McCarthyism and groupthink, I am not sure what exactly Covenant is trying to say, if anything. There seems to be threads about Blackness, the relationship between Black women and Christianity, and violence done to and within the Black community, but by the end of the play, I was unsure which of these subjects Walker was most drawn to.

As various accusations of devil dealings are thrown about, Violet tells Ruthie “You wanna know the real truth about God and the devil? Blessin’s and curses? It’s all a lie. There ain’t no God and there ain’t no devil. All the pain and misery and evil in the world don’t come from hell.” This felt like a major gesture by Walker, a piece of wisdom that all this religiosity was a coping mechanism. It’s a compelling idea, but one that Walker sadly doesn’t stick to.

Similarly, the play is full of twists, almost all of which are spoilers. Though many of these reveals are dramatic, they don’t all work logically, and several are either confusing or disappointing. One leads to a particularly awkward performance from Payton, and the final twists left me unsure about the meaning of the piece.

Likewise, from a playwriting perspective, the play has some technical and structural weaknesses. Several monologue interludes are too lengthy and their payoff is too delayed. Sporadic narration of events felt unnatural stylistically. For the most part, Tiffany Nichole Greene’s direction smooths over these imperfections, keeping us focused more on the scary vibes.

Covenant is absolutely an enjoyable piece to watch. You’ll be frightened in the best way possible, like watching a horror movie up close, or wandering through an immersive haunted house. The play is probably best taken for this entertainment value, because the more you think about what happened and the implications of the various twists, the more it begins to unravel. So just lean into the spookiness – ’tis the season, after all.