The Remake of Madea

When a play goes through a rewrite, a rewrite conducted by a different person, no doubt that the two scripts are going to differ on many a level. With the aid of a willing publisher, the way of Highlander is lost; no longer “can there be only one”. Taking a look at Euripides’ “Madea” and comparing his work to that of a Michael Verderber whose revamped version of the tale manifests itself as “Madea: Cerberus”, it becomes immediately clear that though we are bound to find some likeness betwixt them we are also going to notice undeniable differences... such as the title, characters and scene.

The first and most noticed difference is of course the title, but, this was a completely necessary evil, in order for there to even be a ‘second’ without being a ‘sequel’ (So okay Verderber we’ll let that one go). What is important about this difference is its reference to another difference between the two scripts; the two ‘other’ Madeas. In Verderber’s rendition of the play he introduces a Vengeful Madea as well as Maternal Madea. These women appear to be our ‘center’ Madea’s disassociated emotions who have taken on bodies/voices of their own- as an audience this provides a Madea with three separate faces, hence the need to reference the hell-bound mutt Cerberus (who had three heads).

To validate the idea that these plays are the same here are some examples of noted similarities in both Euripides and Verderbers editions. First, our cast would be given the same roles; our characters are the same. There is of course an irrational Madea, the self-serving Jason, their children, the ignorant princess, the vindictive king and even a few familiar minor roles. Another similarity would involve the contents of the plot in general. In both versions of this play, Madea goes criminally insane when her husband Jason finds another wife (the princess) thereby leaving her with their kids. And, if that were not bad enough, the King(Creon)of Corinth demands for Madea and her sons to be exiled, because he is fearful of her wrath. Lastly, the final and probably most important similarity is that the boys die. Another difference that can be spotted is the spawns in Verderber’s script. In the Euripides version the spawns are not included at all, or mentioned. In Verderber’s script it goes to a flashback where Madea helps Jason defeat the spawns who were attacking him. While it was generally agreed that both of these