Up the Union Jack

By T.E.Kalem

THE JOCKEY CLUB STAKES by WILLIAM DOUGLAS HOME

Prior to John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956), the image of the Eng lish that Americans absorbed from plays and films was a one-dimensional but slyly endearing caricature. The screen, in particular, was peopled with dotty aristocrats, blithering Colonel Blimps, rural eccentrics, peculiar par sons and an assortment of idiots. One knew, however, that they were Britons of the right sort; they would muddle through to the next whisky and soda.

Out of that tradition comes The Jockey Club Stakes, and it is a nostal gic delight to have the show in Manhattan. Playwright Home's three central characters are titled racing stewards. Imagine their clubroom pal lor when they discover that a stakes race has been rigged by the wife of the senior board member (Wilfrid Hyde-White). When a priggish socialist peer threatens to expose the affair, this Britannic trio waives the rules and brings the bounder to heel.

The comedy is as light as balsa wood, but the key performers are as sol id as oaks. Hyde-White can milk a line till it turns to cream. Almost equally adept are Robert Coote as a jowl-waggling army colonel and Geoffrey Sumner as a member of the landed gen try who regards all birds as fair game.

A romantic subplot brings on the at tractive Carolyn Lagerfelt and her stal wart suitor (Philip Kerr). The sun may have set on the British Empire, but the Union Jack is waving brightly on Broadway.

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