by ⭐⭐½
“Welcome to the most controversial show in Edinburgh!”
Amanda Knox knows why the house is packed each night at Fringe to see her perform her debut hour, so she addresses it immediately, although even that opening line delivery does not come off as comedically as she intended. They’re coming out of curiosity. Or worse, simply to see if Knox will dish some hot gossip about her literal trials and emotional tribulations, almost two decades after her study abroad roommate was killed in Italy, with Knox wrongfully charged and convicted of the murder, acquitted, charged again, and finally exonerated after the actual murderer was identified. That man, Rudy Guede, is already out of prison, by the way.
Knox, on the other hand, is still attempting to live a life after infamy. “I’m the human version of the white gold blue black dress,” she says at one point; at another, she compares herself to a Scottish staple, haggis: “loved by those who know me, hated by those who don’t.”
At 39, she has married and become a mother to two small children, a prospect that seemed impossible to her when imprisoned in Italy. All Knox’s own mother wanted for her was what she hoped for, to be free and to enjoy her 20s. How could she ever give that gift to her daughter, Eureka? We hear recordings of Eureka staged to re-enact some of the conversations they’ve had, or chats Amanda imagines she’ll have to have with her someday.
Knox certainly has sincere motives for wanting to tell her story to the broadest audience possible. She has written two memoirs already.
My issue with this particular show is more structural and procedural. This isn’t a comedy. Which isn’t disqualifying, certainly not at the Fringe. But when Knox jokes, “I come from a broken home…which sets me apart from all of the other comedians,” we all see through that. She doesn’t need to explain herself in this hour precisely because the audience already decided they want to hear her out by buying the tickets and showing up. She probably could’ve and should’ve thought longer about whether to bring this hour to Fringe now, instead of workshopping and honing it in the black-box theaters around Seattle’s Puget Sound to make it ready for audiences to truly appreciate her message.
Then again, the audience got to know or think they knew a lot about Knox before she was ever ready for the spotlight.
Amanda Knox: Cartwheel plays Wine Bar at Gilded Balloon Teviot during the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe.
