Before rock ’n’ roll became known as the devil’s music, Lucifer was attached to one of its key ancestors: the blues. Fans of both genres are familiar with the legend holding that Robert Johnson, one of the great blues guitarists, made a Faustian pact in order to master his instrument — a myth no doubt rooted at least in part in the racism that prevailed in the South when Johnson, a Black man born in Mississippi in 1911, practiced his craft.

“Covenant,” the crackling new work by a rising playwright, York Walker, is set in Georgia in 1936, when Johnson began working on a relatively slim but historic collection of recordings, and introduces us to one Johnny “Honeycomb” James, who returns home after a mysterious absence. A stammering naif upon his departure, Johnny — played in this world premiere production by a strapping, gently charismatic Chaundre Hall-Broomfield — is now a smooth talker, and he has acquired superior skills as both a guitarist and a singer.