Nearly 20 years after her wrongful conviction in the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox is facing a new effort to silence her. A Change.org petition demanding the Edinburgh Festival Fringe cancel her show Cartwheel surpassed 10,000 signatures, prompting Knox to respond publicly on Instagram.
"There is a petition to cancel my show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here is my statement," she wrote, before addressing the show's content directly. "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."
Knox pushed back on the petition's characterization of the show. "Neither the author of this petition nor anyone who signed it has seen Cartwheel. The petition contains many false assumptions and completely mischaracterizes the show. Cartwheel honors Meredith Kercher's memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me."
She went further, drawing a direct connection between the petition itself and the themes she explores on stage. "A petition to cancel a show no one has seen, on the grounds of false accusations intended to shame and vilify a wronged woman into silence, is not an argument against Cartwheel. It's a fairly precise description of what Cartwheel is about and why it deserves to exist. And the Edinburgh Fringe is the perfect place for a show like this."
Knox also addressed the role of comedy in tackling difficult subjects. "Many of the Fringe's most celebrated comedy shows tackle difficult subjects including grief, trauma, mental health, addiction, illness, identity, and politics. Comics rarely treat these experiences lightly or make them the butt of the joke. Instead, they use comedy as a way to explore them, creating space for audiences to engage with complex ideas, connect through shared experience, and find moments of relief, perspective and hope in subjects that might otherwise feel overwhelming," she wrote.
The petition was started by Sally Alington, described as a former friend and co-worker of Kercher. It accused Knox's show of mocking the events surrounding Kercher's murder and called on the Fringe to withdraw support for the performance.
Fringe Society director Tony Lankester told BBC Radio Scotland the festival is "not afraid of controversy," but said the final decision rested with the venue. A representative for the Gilded Balloon Teviot, which is hosting Cartwheel from August 7 through 17, said the venue aims to provide a platform for a wide range of voices and will allow the show to proceed as scheduled.
The show's title refers to a claim that Knox did cartwheels at a police station after being questioned about Kercher's death. Knox was convicted of the murder in 2009 and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Her conviction was overturned in 2011, and she was fully acquitted in 2015.
