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Amanda Knox has pushed back against accusations that her upcoming comedy performance at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival makes light of violence against women. The American, now 39, addressed the controversy Thursday through an Instagram statement, asserting that her show instead commemorates her former flatmate Meredith Kercher while drawing attention to the violence inflicted on both women.
Knox was arrested in 2007 after Kercher, a British student, was discovered stabbed to death in their shared Perugia apartment on November 2. Knox spent nearly four years incarcerated before an appellate court in Perugia released her; Italy’s Supreme Court ultimately acquitted both Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in 2015. Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast was convicted of the murder after his DNA linked him to the crime scene; he was released in 2021 after completing most of his 16-year sentence.
The show, titled “Cartwheel” and named after a disputed story about Knox’s behavior following Kercher’s death, debuts Friday and will run for 11 consecutive nights. Festival organizers describe it as examining a woman confronting her anger over wrongful imprisonment while navigating motherhood and societal judgment about her guilt or innocence.
Stephanie Kercher, Meredith’s sister, told the BBC that the production “normalizes and trivializes violence against women” and should not receive a platform. She acknowledged Knox’s freedom to move forward but expressed strong objection to a comedy format addressing the case, regardless of who created it.
An online petition opposing the show has garnered over 4,400 signatures, claiming it “mocks the horrific events” surrounding Kercher’s murder and converts tragedy into entertainment. Knox countered that petitions demanding cancellation of an unseen show constitute an attempt to silence a wrongfully convicted woman through false accusations.
Knox returned to the United States in 2011 and has built a career advocating for the wrongly imprisoned. She produces a podcast alongside her husband and published the memoir “Free: My Search for Meaning” last year.
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