Amanda Knox has brought her debut stand-up comedy show, Cartwheel, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Gilded Balloon TeviotPerformer, cleared of the death of her roommate in Italy, uses new motherhood as a framework for her defiant comedy show.
Knox opens her show with the line, "Welcome to the most controversial show on the fringe!" While some audiences might view this introduction as self-regarding, it serves as an acknowledgment of ongoing attempts to silence her. Described by critics as a human version of the "blue/gold dress"—a canvas onto which people project guilt, innocence, or eccentricity—Knox uses the stage to address the latter, processing her "extremely prolonged and public trauma."
Labeling Cartwheel as a comedy show has drawn some criticism for being potentially insensitive or inaccurate. However, Knox uses the platform to voice her growing anger at her treatment and her determination to raise her daughter to be "the exact girl I was punished for being," rather than growing up scared or silenced.
The performance features Knox folding children's clothes while maintaining a dialogue with the recorded voice of her four-year-old daughter. She reflects on how to explain her wrongful imprisonment to her children, suggesting a Dr. Seuss-style story: "Knox the fox in a box with locks." She also details the hateful online abuse that targeted her baby’s birth, showing how motherhood has intensified her fury over what she and her own mother endured.
Although Knox is an inexperienced comedian and the production feels less like a traditional stand-up show, she shapes her narrative well. The show features several adroit jokes that prompt rueful smiles rather than big laughs. Ultimately, the performance stands as a stirring, defiant, and respectful attempt to reclaim her tragic story while honoring the memory of her late roommate.
If we’re here for an insight into what it’s like to be Amanda Knox, we get it, as episodes from the 39-year-old’s “extremely prolonged and public trauma” are recounted while folding children’s clothes and maintaining a dialogue with the voice of her four-year-old daughter. How can she tell her kids about her wrongful i
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