ABSTRACT
In an interview with Arnold Wesker taped in July 1977, Robert Skloot confided that he was drawn to The Four Seasons as a director because of the challenges offered by 'its austerity and its lyricism'. Part of Wesker's success in the early plays lay in his ability to create distinctive speech rhythms for characters from different social backgrounds like the Kahns and the Bryants in the Trilogy and control of rhythm is fundamental to the more formally patterned mode of expression he devised for The Four Seasons. Interpretation of The Four Seasons must begin with the effects created by Wesker's decision to focus 'on the relationship alone' and to omit the kind of contextual details characteristic of naturalism. Like all Wesker's plays, The Four Seasons requires, in the words of advice he gave to Robert Skloot, 'to be played straight'.
