The Edinburgh festival fringe said it was “not afraid of controversy” after calls to cancel a sold-out show by Amanda Knox, who was falsely imprisoned for the 2007 murder of her flatmate Meredith Kercher in Italy.
Knox’s comedy show, Cartwheel, has been condemned by Kercher’s family, with her sister, Stephanie, saying it “normalises and trivialises violence against women”. A petition calling for it to be cancelled has been signed by more than 6,000 people.
Knox, from Seattle in the US, and her then Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in 2009 for the murder and sexual assault of Kercher, a British foreign exchange student living in Perugia. The couple maintained their innocence and, after years of legal battles, were acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Knox, 39, said of the petition: “Cartwheel is a show about motherhood, raising a daughter in a world that is unfair and dangerous for women, and what it costs to be the kind of mother who tells her the truth about that. Neither the author of this petition nor anyone who signed it has seen Cartwheel.”
Knox, now a married mother of two, said the petition contained “many false assumptions and completely mischaracterises the show”. She added: “Cartwheel honours Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me.”
Knox has previously said the show did not “joke about Meredith’s death”.
Cartwheel is a reference to a story that alleged Knox did cartwheels in the police station after Kercher’s death.
Tony Lankester, the director of the Fringe Society, told BBC Radio Scotland: “We’re not afraid of controversy.”
“The decision as to whether or not (the show) goes ahead lies with herself and it lies with the venue.”
He added: “As sympathetic as we are to individual cases that crop up, and absolutely as a parent I can relate to the pain that they describe, but that can’t be a criteria, it can’t be one of the lenses that we look through.”
Gilded Balloon Teviot, the show’s venue, said in a statement: “The Edinburgh festival fringe is an open-access festival. As a fringe venue, we provide a platform for a wide range of voices, in line with the fringe’s longstanding commitment to freedom of expression (within the confines of the law) and ensure our audiences can make informed choices.
“Artists and companies choose to participate at our venue and take on the financial and creative responsibility for their work. Amanda’s show is a one-woman piece exploring themes of motherhood, presented independently by her.”
Stephanie Kercher told BBC Breakfast that Knox was “naturally free to continue with her life as she wishes, but I think the problem with this particular project is that it is comedy.”
“And whilst I appreciate comedy is there to push the boundaries … it very much normalises and trivialises violence against women and Meredith in particular.”
Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted of Kercher’s murder in 2008. He was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years of a 16-year term.
Claire Cochrane, a professor emeritus of theatre studies at the University of Worcester, said: “What happened to both Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox was dreadful and of course I understand the Kercher family’s continuing grief.
“However, vociferous campaigns mounted against artistic product based on unexamined assumptions about content and motivation undermines genuine attempts to deal with the personal legacies of violence and tragedy.
“Comedy thoughtfully deployed can be both cathartic and therapeutic. I’m not going to be able to see Knox’s performance in Edinburgh. But I think it should go ahead and be properly and thoughtfully scrutinised.”
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