This is hysterical, from the expressionist exclamations and repeats onwards. Thank you so much for summing it up for us! I think my favourite detail is Katte adressing Fritz as "Herr Oberst". (Which, okay, was his rank in the army at the time, but seriously, Königliche Hoheit/Mein Prinz or nothing.)
Trying for some semiserious comments on what sounds like a terrible play: Katte being that loyal to FW makes me wonder whether Burte was a fan of not even Schiller's, but Verdi's Don Carlos. (Not Schiller's because Schiller's Posa feels a bit sorry for Philip at best, but well, he starts the play conspiring for Dutch freedom, so "should I be loyal to my King or my crown prince?" never is an issue.) Otoh "how do I get my son to love me?/Why doesn't my son love me?" is actually not that inaccurate for FW as such (not as a question to Katte, for his attitude, I mean). We're talking about the man who wrote instructions to little Fritz' educators that they were never to threaten him with FW's anger, only with the Queen's, because he wanted to be loved, not feared by his son, and who according to the Braunschweig envoy loved shopping for Christmas treats himself to give his smaller kids. He just was utterly and completely unable to make a connection between behaving like a tyrant at any sign Fritz wasn't a little replica liking the exact same things FW did, and being feared.
Anyway, as it's impossible to be a German playwright and not to have read your Schiller, I do think making FW seek out Katte as a confidant was probably some backwards projecting of the Philip-Posa-Carlos constellation on FW-Katte-Fritz on Burte's part.
Re: Katte - A Tragicomedy (the first half)
Trying for some semiserious comments on what sounds like a terrible play: Katte being that loyal to FW makes me wonder whether Burte was a fan of not even Schiller's, but Verdi's Don Carlos. (Not Schiller's because Schiller's Posa feels a bit sorry for Philip at best, but well, he starts the play conspiring for Dutch freedom, so "should I be loyal to my King or my crown prince?" never is an issue.) Otoh "how do I get my son to love me?/Why doesn't my son love me?" is actually not that inaccurate for FW as such (not as a question to Katte, for his attitude, I mean). We're talking about the man who wrote instructions to little Fritz' educators that they were never to threaten him with FW's anger, only with the Queen's, because he wanted to be loved, not feared by his son, and who according to the Braunschweig envoy loved shopping for Christmas treats himself to give his smaller kids. He just was utterly and completely unable to make a connection between behaving like a tyrant at any sign Fritz wasn't a little replica liking the exact same things FW did, and being feared.
Anyway, as it's impossible to be a German playwright and not to have read your Schiller, I do think making FW seek out Katte as a confidant was probably some backwards projecting of the Philip-Posa-Carlos constellation on FW-Katte-Fritz on Burte's part.