This weekend marks the start of Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe, billed as the world’s biggest comedy and theater festival, and one show, in particular, is stirring controversy — a comedy called “Cartwheel,” by Amanda Knox, the American former student who was convicted and later acquitted of her British roommate’s murder 19 years ago in Italy.
The title refers to how Knox was said to have done cartwheels at an Italian police station after her roommate, Meredith Kercher’s murder. Kercher’s sister, Stephanie Kercher, told the BBC that any comedy about that is hurtful to her family.
Knox says the show is about what she calls her wrongful imprisonment, how she’s now juggling motherhood, and says she made it with deep heart and sensitivity: “I’m not the first person to invent using comedy to talk about traumatic and difficult material.”
Her sold-out show runs for 11 nights at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Find “NPR News Now” wherever you listen to podcasts.