‘Jones’ Grapples With Racial Identity

When “Bob Devin Jones: Baldwin Plus Two,” a bill of three one-acts at Glaxa Studios, deals with self-discovery and racial identity, it is thoughtful, though not necessarily thought-provoking, entertainment. The first piece, “Red Pumps,” and the last, “Black Witness: With Horace the Boy Who Could Fly,” nicely balance each other as different takes on the same question of ethnic identity and social concern. Unfortunately, Jones’ “Blues Shoes” is incongruously florid and utterly ridiculous in an unforgivably boring manner.

“I’m a Negro searching for a personality,” declares Craig Green at the opening of his “Red Pumps,” staged by Jones. Green portrays a nebbishy, conservative black man who borders on nerdiness. He asks himself, what does he know about the black experience? Yet in a giddy Broadway moment he comes to understand the “strong black woman image” and lusts after a pair of sassy red high heels.

Following this teddy-bearish exploration of racial identity is “Blues Shoes,” a turgid tale about a white drag queen (Dan Barclay) who mourns for his deceased guitarist lover, his “blues poet phoenix love.” Barclay plays it straight, and this is unfortunate. Most of the lines sound like bad Tennessee Williams and under Jones’ direction Barclay is languid, but lacks the ambiguous sexuality of a “used boy in drag,” who had a “bit of Jayne Mansfield” in his strut.

As James Baldwin in “Black Witness,” Jones is competent, but there is nothing compelling about his portrayal or his overdrawn interpretations of Baldwin’s works. The rhythm of this piece draws to several false endings, starting up again to no good effect. Eric Baldwin’s direction fails to overcome this weakness.

* “Bob Devin Jones: Baldwin Plus Two,” Glaxa Studios, 3707 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Indefinitely. $10. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.