The Edinburgh Fringe boss has spoken out following calls for Amanda Knox’s comedy show at the festival to be cancelled.
Knox was falsely imprisoned for the murder of her friend Meredith Kercher in Italy back in 2007.
After being convicted in 2009 for the murder and sexual assault of the British foreign exchange student – along with her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito – Knox was eventually cleared six years later.
Now, over a decade later, the American’s plans to bring comedy show Cartwheel to the famed Edinburgh festival this month have sparked controversy, with more than 6,000 people signing a petition calling for it to be axed.
Kercher’s sister Stephanie has said the show being comedic “normalises and trivialises violence against women”.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Knox responded to the petition, saying: “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 mischaracterises the show.
“Cartwheel honours Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me.
“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.”
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Tony Lancaster, the director of the Fringe Society, said the festival is no stranger to causing rancour.
“We’re not afraid of controversy,” he said. “The decision as to whether or not (the show) goes ahead lies with Amanda herself and it lies with the venue.
“Those are conversations that they can have, but as far as I’m concerned, I believe that if you are opening up a stage and calling it an open access festival and inviting people in to tell their stories, you have to be prepared for some controversy – it’s going to happen.
“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.”
He added that the line the Fringe will not cross is a legal one.
“If anyone wants to use the Fringe to break the law, incite violence, to embark on hate speech, that is very clear and that is our red line,” he said.
The Fringe Society is not responsible for programming, he added, with venues being able to put on their own shows which the society will sell tickets for.
