Kim Hanna
There are only a few top-notch playwrights in the Tampa Bay area, so it´s a pleasure to note the arrival of a new talent. And talent is the word for Tampa author Kim Hanna, whose Hypoxia Zone was presented by Stageworks last July in a terrifically acted, beautifully designed production. This is a play about three female friends who meet for a weekend on a Florida island and, unrestrained by the presence of husbands or children, bare their souls to one another. As they do, we come to see that each is on the run from a hypoxia zone — an area devoid of nourishing oxygen — in their own lives. Leigh (Bonita Agan) is married to a man whom she suspects is having an affair with his young secretary; Geena (Eileen Koteles) refuses to face up to the possibility that her husband is sexually abusing their daughter; and Eve (Robin O´Dell) has just come to realize that she has been repeating the same relationship with man after man. As the women drink and carouse and confess their fears and fantasies, we in the audience come to admire their courage, dignity and humanity. And we also come to see that playwright Hanna is prodigiously gifted when it comes to sparkling dialogue and deep characterizations. So suddenly there´s one more notable playwright on Florida´s west coast. Lovers of theater will be on the lookout for her next appearance.
