SOURCE: "A New American Playwright," in Common-weal, Vol. 106, No. 18, 12 October 1979, pp. 559-60.

In the following favorable review, Weales describes Getting Out as "an effective theater piece " and Norman as "an impressive addition to the list of good young American playwrights. "

First produced in 1977, Getting Out went on to play Los Angeles and to be chosen by a commitee of the American Theater Critics Association, most of whom knew it only in typescript, for inclusion as the regional play in The Best Plays of 1977-1978. It had, then, made a name for itself before it ever got to New York, first in a Phoenix Theatre production, then in the current successful off-Broadway run. A first play seldom chalks up such a record, but Marsha Norman is not the ordinary beginning playwright. Most talented neophytes display either a passionate concern about their subjects or an imaginative flair for theater. Getting...