Edinburgh Fringe: Almost 10,000 people sign petition to axe Amanda Knox as festival bosses defend show
Bosses have defended the staging of Knox’s show ‘Cartwheel’, saying a family’s pain “cannot be a lens with how we consider work at the Fringe”.
Almost 10,000 people have now signed a petition calling for Amanda Knox’s comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to be axed.
However Fringe bosses have defended the staging of her show ‘Cartwheel’, saying a family’s pain “cannot be a lens with how we consider work at the Fringe”.
Amongst those signing the change.org petition is Meredith Kercher’s sister Stephanie, who said the show turns the rape and murder of her sister into “entertainment”, and asked: “How would you feel if it was your sister?”
Speaking to the media, she said: “It’s very personal to us and it affects her friends because she left a massive void in our lives.
Read more: Amanda Knox breaks silence on social media to personally address show controversy
“Amanda is naturally free to continue her life as she wishes, but the problem with this particular project is that it's a comedy, and while I appreciate that comedy pushes boundaries, it normalises and trivialises violence against women.”
Ms Knox was convicted and later acquitted of Ms Kercher’s murder in Italy 2017. On Thursday morning she told BBC Breakfast it gave her “an opportunity to live her life as she pleases”.
Ms Knox said people will “recognise the deep sensitivity I bring to a traumatic situation”. She added: “I’m not the first person to invent using comedy to talk about traumatic material.
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“I hope people honestly engage with my work and recognise the deep heart and sensitivity I bring to it through a comedic lens.
“The interesting irony is that a huge motivation for doing this show is my daughter and how the world is unsafe towards women and how it is to raise a daughter in this world.
“I’ve seen how bad it can be, and if they saw my show they would recognise that.”
Read more: Petition calling for Amanda Knox's Edinburgh Fringe comedy show to be axed gathers thousands of signatures
Tony Lankester, director of the Fringe Society, has defended the inclusion of Amanda Knox’s show at this year’s festival.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast, he said: “The Fringe is no stranger to controversy. That's the nature of having an open access platform, opening people to tell stories without censorship, curation and trying to control the content you will stage.
“That might cause discomfort and fence and push boundaries.
“The question is how does one weigh up the offence and pain caused by a piece of work, and I’m not disregarding that Meredith’s family and friends live with pain, but that cannot be a lens with how we consider work at the Fringe.
“For us the baseline principle is this is a platform for free speech. It might be uncomfortable, some people might think it’s not in good taste, but who gets to decide that?”
He said the “red line” for the Fringe is anything illegal such as inciting violence or using hate speech, and anything else cannot have “subjective judgement” applied to it.
Mr Lankester added: “As far as I’m concerned if you believe in opening up a stage and calling it an open access festival, you have to be prepared for controversy.
“It’s going to happen.
“As sympathetic as we are to certain cases, and as a parent I can relate to this pain, that cannot be a criteria and the lens we look through.”
At the time of writing, the petition has now gained 8,563 signatures, up by nearly 2,000 from this morning. A message on the petition reads: “The show mocks the horrific events surrounding Meredith’s murder and aims to somehow turns this tragedy into entertainment.
“Meredith’s surviving siblings have bravely spoken out against this production, labelling it as absurd and a gross trivialisation of their sister’s death.
“This show not only disrespects Meredith’s memory, but it also risks normalising violence against women by making light of such a harrowing event.”
It added: “The performance ‘Cartwheel’ must be cancelled not only out of respect for Meredith’s family but as a stand against the normalisation of violence against women in popular culture.
“We must send a strong message that entertainment should never beat the expense of human dignity and respect for victims of crime.”
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