Playwright York Walker’s “Covenant,” now having its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, begins in pitch-dark: brief moments in which two women appear, consecutively, by candlelight, each with a mysterious announcement to make.
“Everybody has secrets,” says one.
What’s pleasantly titillating is not so much their statements, for which audiences have no context at the moment, but rather the almost subliminal, spooky sound heard. It puts viewers on notice that altogether, it’s going to be an unsettling play.
“Covenant” is an unsettling play, and the sound design, by Bailey Trierweiler, is terrific — alternately unnerving in a subliminal way and at times scary enough to make audiences practically jump out of their seats (an electric storm late in the 1 hour, 40-minute intermission-less Southern Gothic drama is particularly spine-tingling).
Similarly, Alan Edwards’ lighting design plays clever tricks, induces gasps from the audience and is great fun overall.
And Hahnji’s costume design sets the time (the 1930s) and the place (Georgia) quite nicely.
It takes a while to figure out who all the players are. Avery (Latoya Edwards), whose elopement sets off the familial fireworks, is the favored daughter of God-fearing, ultra-controlling Mama (the always terrific Jeunée Simon).
Avery’s sister, Violet (Alicia Pilgrim), is increasingly skeptical of the hyper-religious house rules that Mama enforces in a state of permanent fear and rage.
Early on, the nicknamed “Honeycomb” shows up — he was Avery’s longtime friend, Johnny, who went on the road to become a blues musician. He’s back with musical skills he’d never had before, and this time he wants Avery.
There’s a suspicion in town that he sold his soul to the devil. Mama, for one, doesn’t trust him one bit and forbids Avery to see him.
But god-fearing Avery, who at first tells Honeycomb that what he’s playing is “the devil’s music,” quickly succumbs. She wants to hit the road with him and see Chicago, more than anything.
A neighbor, young Ruthie (Shian Tomlinson), is also desperate to go on the road with Honeycomb (“I think I’ve got the music in me!” she tries to convince the singer.)
All five characters are essential to the plot, and all five actors find plenty of nuances in their emotionally changeable roles.
Still, convincing as they are, as carefully guided through all their twists and turns by director Taylor Reynolds, this full-out horror story, which works its way toward a presumably unnerving ending, simply doesn’t have anything cogent to say about religious belief, family conflict, or the desperate need of young people to find their way in the world. And the brief stories that the various characters pause to tell the audience tend to fall flat.
When Avery finally returns home with Honeycomb, things get just plain silly.
Nevertheless, frightening lights and sound, the way a crucifix turns upside down on its own volition, the de rigueur mysteriously opening door, Avery’s wobbly, zombie-like stagger when she returns home at last with Honeycomb — that’s entertainment, if that’s the way you roll.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s “Covenant” continues through Dec. 13 in Peet’s Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley; tickets are $32 to $147 at berkeleyrep.org.