Written by Danielle James

Review by Jack Quinn

Greenside @ George Street: Tickets

It starts – as many plays about student house-shares at the Edinburgh fringe do – the regretful morning after the hazy night before. Bonnie, our central hungover protagonist, floats between shaking her flatmates for information in her quest to establish what happened when she blacked out the night before and downing Rach’s home remedy for a hangover cure. Only when the flashback to the night before occurs does this play exist in a much darker universe than our own.

Covenant takes place in a dystopian setting in which abortions have been made illegal, and any complicity in illegal abortions is punishable with imprisonment, as medic student Jen expresses hesitancy in assisting with this now illegal process of bringing autonomy to women’s bodies.

An interesting idea that grows as the piece develops is that Covenant is a pressure cooker of a play that interrogates the relationship between the systems of power and women’s bodies. More naturalistic direction would have benefitted the actors by keeping in this dark world that is not too far from our own, in a play in which the actors’ passion sometimes leads to long sections of shouting and direct address to the audience, which dilutes the impact of this compelling concept.

Covenant is a chilling reminder of the dangers of abuses of power and how far one will go to protect oneself in the face of what is right.

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