Nearly 20 years after she was falsely accused of killing her roommate, Amanda Knox is still struggling to tell her own story.
The author and comedian, who was wrongfully convicted of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, has responded after a petition to cancel her Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Cartwheel surpassed 10,000 signatures.
“There is a petition to cancel my show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here is my statement,” she prefaced on Instagram. “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. 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.”
Knox continued, “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.
“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.
Started by Sally Alington, a former friend and co-worker of Kercher, the Change.org petition said the show “mocks the horrific events surrounding Meredith’s murder and aims to somehow turn this tragedy into entertainment,” calling for Fringe to “withdraw their support for this performance.”
Meanwhile, Fringe Society director Tony Lankester told BBC Radio Scotland the festival is “not afraid of controversy,” but the decision ultimately lies with the venue. A rep for the Gilded Balloon Teviot, which will host Cartwheel from Aug. 7-17, said they aim to “provide a platform for a wide range of voices, in line with the Fringe’s longstanding commitment to freedom of expression,” and will allow Knox’s show to continue as scheduled.
After Knox was convicted of Kercher’s murder in 2009 and sentenced to 26 years in prison, the conviction was overturned in 2011 and she was fully acquitted in 2015. The title of her Fringe show refers to claims she did cartwheels in the police station after being questioned over the killing.
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