What Emerges From the ‘Dark Moon of Lilith’

Aimee Greenberg doesn’t seem all that comfortable talking about Liam, the mass-murderer who figures prominently in her performance piece, “Dark Moon of Lilith.”

A psychopath with a need to destroy prostitutes is never a pleasant subject for chitchat. But Liam takes on an even more unsettling dimension when the articulate Greenberg reveals that he was inspired, at least in part, by a high-school classmate she knew in Long Island, N.Y.

Greenberg, who will premiere “Dark Moon of Lilith” Saturday night at the Huntington Beach Art Center for a single performance, went to school with Joel Rifkin, a gardener who was convicted in 1994 of murder and has confessed to killing 17 women, most of them prostitutes.

“I was very disturbed to find out about him,” Greenberg said during a phone interview from her home in San Diego. “I remembered him well; he was shy and was made fun of a lot. I remember him in our horticulture class.

“Then I found out there were loose similarities [between Rifkin and me]. Like he was adopted, and I was adopted. I also had a rough adolescence. But he became a serial killer, and I became an artist. . . . That thought stuck with me.”

Through Liam, Greenberg wanted to explore, among other things, the most perverse of male attitudes toward women. While Liam may be the most unsettling character in “Dark Moon of Lilith,” the 37-year-old artist stresses that he’s only a part of the big picture that forms her multimedia show.

“I really don’t want to dwell” on him, she said. “He’s important, but there’s much more going on.”

Greenberg conceived, wrote, directed and acts in the one-woman theatrical piece that, she said, tries to make clear how society has interpreted women in both the real and symbolic senses.

To do this, she begins with Lilith, the rabbinical legend who was Adam’s first wife before giving way to Eve.

“She is a character who has gone from a state of reverence to one of degradation; first she’s a sacred servant and then is demonized,” Greenberg explained. “I’m fascinated by that dichotomy, where women are both elevated and exalted and then seen as degraded subjects.”

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While Greenberg portrays Lilith in abstract, subjective ways, she is accompanied by a violinist in a performance that also incorporates “movement, taped voice, live voice, video. It’s really a pastiche [with elements] of German Expressionism.”

From the metaphorical Lilith, Greenberg shifts to a more concrete Lilith in the form of a young German girl who becomes an entertainer for the Nazis during the World War II years. Or, as Greenberg puts it, “a Blue Angel, but with a twist.” This Lilith eventually has a child, named Lilum, who becomes a prostitute. Lilum then has a child of her own, Liam, the murderer of prostitutes.

Greenberg said she was fascinated with the symbolism of Lilith and took much creative pleasure in interpreting her. The interest in Liam, however, was eerier.

When she began to study Rifkin, she found herself returning to her early life as an adolescent in Long Island. She was struck by how a place that was considered so normal could produce someone like Rifkin.

“It was very, very disturbing,” Greenberg said. “It was like in that David Lynch way. You know, you grow up in a suburban town in Long Island that seems so normal that it’s too normal.

“Then someone like Joel Rifkin becomes 35 [years old] and parts of bodies are found in his house. It’s almost too much.” Although “Dark Moon of Lilith” has all the trappings of so-called “performance art,” Greenberg is reluctant to use the label. Many people associate performance art with wildly symbolic and even indulgent presentations, which she said doesn’t fit her work at all.

“It’s a sticky thing, that term,” Greenberg explained. “I have stage training, which many [doing performance art] don’t. I just happen to be against performance art, at least when it’s done for shock value.

“I’ve caught flak for that. . . . Some people think I’m closed-minded.”

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That hasn’t kept Greenberg from receiving good reviews for other pieces in Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Russia and Japan.

One of her most recent projects, “phases of the LOON,” which told of Greenberg’s experiences with breast cancer, was described by the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this year as “both haunting and cathartic.” As for “Dark Moon of Lilith,” Greenberg hopes to take it to Los Angeles, New York and maybe Europe after its premiere Saturday.

* Aimee Greenberg’s “Dark Moon of Lilith” will be presented on a program with Rock Shih and Maya Culbertson’s “Close Up” on Saturday at the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St. 8 p.m. $6-$8. (714) 374-1650.