Amanda Knox defended her comedic one-woman show, “Cartwheel,” amid criticism from murder victim Meredith Kercher‘s sister and a groundswell of social media opposition.
“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,’” Knox, 39, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, August 6. “It’s a fairly precise description of what ‘Cartwheel’ is about and why it deserves to exist.”
Knox debuts at the famed Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Friday, August 7, in a solo stage show about “juggling motherhood and finally getting around to being furious about the whole wrongful-imprisonment thing,” according to the festival.
A promotional synopsis of “Cartwheel” teases that the crux of the show revolves around how Knox plans to tell her 4-year-old daughter Eureka Muse about what happened when “mama [went] to Italy.”
Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were charged with murder and sexual assault in Italy in November 2007 in connection with her roommate Kercher’s death. The former couple were found guilty following a controversial trial in Italy in 2009, only for an appeal to overturn the verdict two years later.
Knox returned to the U.S. once her conviction was vacated. In 2013, the Italian Supreme Court ruled to overturn the appeal and ordered a new trial where Knox and Sollecito were convicted for a second time.
Sollecito appealed his second conviction, leading to the Italian Supreme Court overturning the convictions once again in 2015. Italy’s high court ruled at that time that Sollecito and Knox could never again be tried for Kercher’s death.
A third individual, Rudy Guede, was convicted of sexual assault and Kercher’s murder in 2008 and initially ordered to serve 30 years in prison. Guede — who has always maintained his innocence — secured an early release from custody in November 2021.
A Change.org petition calling on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to cancel “Cartwheel” has gained more than 9,500 signatures after being organized by a Kercher family friend. The petition argues that the one-woman show “not only disrespects Meredith’s memory” but also “risks normalizing violence against women by making light of such a harrowing event.”
Meredith’s sister, Stephanie Kercher, publicly encouraged Knox to scrap the show during an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Thursday.
“What I would say [to Knox] is to think about the family here, think about her friends and to turn the tables if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well,” Stephanie, 42, argued.
Stephanie was asked to respond to Knox saying in recent interviews that Meredith may have found “Cartwheel” funny.
“Meredith absolutely wouldn’t find these topics of any comedy value,” Stephanie insisted. “Our family’s pain is immense. I can’t explain to you how much pain our family have been through, and also we’re talking two decades later now, this pain.”
As backlash mounted over ‘Cartwheel,” Knox penned a lengthy Instagram statement to explain why she refused to back down.
“‘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 wrote. “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 suggested that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was “the perfect place for a show like this” despite its controversial nature.
“Many of the Fringe’s most celebrated comedy shows tackle difficult subjects including grief, trauma, mental health, addiction, illness, identity, and politics,” she noted. “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.”
“Cartwheel” is expected to run through August 17 as part of an 11-day engagement at the Gilded Balloon Teviot.
