Amanda Knox Defends Edinburgh Fringe Show Amid Criticism from Meredith Kercher’s Sister

Dragon Media News Desk

Amanda Knox, the American who was convicted and later acquitted in connection with the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy, has defended her new comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after criticism from Kercher’s sister.

The criticism centers on claims that the show risks trivializing violence against women. Knox rejected that characterization, saying in an Instagram post on Thursday that the production “honors Meredith Kercher’s memory” and addresses the violence and injustice experienced by both Kercher and herself.

The show, titled “Cartwheel,” takes its name from a widely circulated story that Knox performed cartwheels at a police station following Kercher’s death. It is scheduled to debut on Friday evening and run for 11 consecutive nights at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Scottish capital’s annual festival of comedy, theater and musical performances.

Promotional material for the show presents Knox, now 39, as a woman approaching 40, balancing motherhood and finally expressing anger over what she describes as her wrongful imprisonment. The production also explores the contradiction between those who tell her to move on and those who continue to believe she was guilty.

Knox was a 20-year-old student living in Perugia when Kercher was found dead in her bedroom on Nov. 2, 2007, in an apartment they shared with two Italian women.

Suspicion soon focused on Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Knox spent nearly four years in prison during the investigation and initial court proceedings before being freed by an appeals court in Perugia.

Knox and Sollecito were ultimately acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast, was convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison and was released in 2021 after serving most of his sentence.

Knox’s new show is expected to draw on her legal ordeal, public image and the controversy that has followed her for nearly two decades. The criticism from Kercher’s family has also renewed debate over how experiences involving violent crime, wrongful conviction claims and personal trauma should be presented in a comedy setting.