Stephanie Kercher, the sister of murdered British exchange student Meredith Kercher, has strongly condemned a stand-up comedy show by BBC at the Edinburgh Live. Meredith Kercher was 21 years old when she was raped and murdered in the central Italian city of Perugia in late 2007 by Rudy Guede, who was later found guilty and served a prison sentence. Knox, who was Meredith’s roommate in Italy, was initially convicted of the killing alongside her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, spending several years in Italian jails before Italy’s Supreme Court definitively acquitted her in 2015.
Stephanie Kercher Criticizes Amanda Knox Edinburgh Fringe Show
Knox’s one-woman stand-up show, titled thenational.scot, is scheduled to run at a chortle.co.uk venue. According to its promotional blurb and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe website, the performance explores motherhood, raising a daughter in a dangerous world, and Knox finally getting around to being furious about her wrongful imprisonment, while asking how she will explain what happened in Perugia to her child. The title references a story claiming Knox did cartwheels in a police station following her friend’s death.
Family and Legal Opposition
Stephanie Kercher expressed deep distress over the production, telling BBC Breakfast directly: What I would say [to Knox] is to think about the family here, think about her friends and to turn the tables if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well.
She added that her family’s pain remains immense nearly two decades later, stating: Imagine 20 years after Meredith’s death, your pain is turned into someone else’s laughter.
Francesco Maresca, the Italian lawyer representing the Kercher family, also expressed shock, calling the show a deplorable offence to Meredith’s memory and noting he had lost hope of Knox understanding the emotional toll on the victim’s relatives. Additionally, a petition to cancel the performances was launched by Sally Alington, a long-time friend of the Kercher family. The petition, which has gathered more than 1,500 to 2,000 signatures across different tracking points in reporting, argues that the show disrespects Meredith’s memory and normalises violence against women by trivializing a harrowing event.
Knox Defense and Venue Response
In response to the backlash, representatives and spokespeople for Knox have defended the production. A spokesperson stated that Edinburgh Live honours Meredith Kercher’s memory and focuses on motherhood and the challenges of raising a daughter with honesty. Knox previously told the media that she does not joke about Meredith’s murder, but rather about how she was vilified, and suggested that Meredith—whom she described as smart and refined—would have found the show funny. Stephanie Kercher firmly rejected this suggestion, stating that her sister absolutely would not find comedy surrounding these issues funny.
The thenational.scot defended hosting the performances by emphasizing that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an open-access festival providing a platform for a wide range of voices in line with commitments to freedom of expression. The venue noted that artists take independent financial and creative responsibility for their work. Meanwhile, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society stated it does not select or curate work, and does not possess the power to cancel shows outright, though it controls inclusion in its online programme.
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