Covenant at Goodman’s Owen Theatre extended to June 7th
Curtain Call Chicago - Review Date May 12, 2026
Covenant: A Gripping, sharp and Captivating Play - Review By: Paul Lisnek
*** ½ out of 4
Covenant is a gripping and often funny play that lingers in one’s mind long after its final revelation. York Walker has crafted a sharp, captivating, unsettling play set in a Southern Gothic atmosphere. The plot uses family turmoil to address a deeper meditation on faith, superstition and the stories people tell themselves from generation to generation. This family conflict explores the line between rumor and truth. I loved this nail-biting, chair gripping show!
There is an omnipresent mood of mystery and a host of family secrets covering buried family wounds. The underlying fear is ultimately a search for salvation. Malkia Stampley’s direction gives the production a tense, pulsing rhythm, which deepens scene by scene by scene. It becomes clear that belief can comfort people, but it can also distort their reality.
Jaeda LaVonne’s performance as Avery is striking and intelligent. Her portrayal grounds the production with a character who reflects every fracture in her family but with an important sense of restraint. Avery is both emotionally alive and critical to the play’s ever-mounting tension.
Anji White’s Mama is formidable indeed. She is this family’s center of gravity, exuding a strength of character, but also a vulnerability to her clearly hidden history. Her strong performance ensures that the family’s conflict feels intimate and something to be addressed, rather than a mere plot-driving tool.
Goodman was correct to select the Owen as the stage and setting for this production given its intimacy and smaller scale which kept the play close and charged with tension ready to burst.
Put more succinctly, Covenant uses family turmoil as the entry point for a deep meditation on faith, superstition, secrecy, and the stories people tell themselves to survive. Its haunting force triggers chills and cheers from the audience who clearly appreciated the intensity of the work. Bravo!