Actor Cha In-pyo, center, and cast members perform a scene from the play "Dead Poets Society" during a press call at NOL Theater Daehangno Woori Card Hall in Jongno District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

A strait-laced American boarding school in 1959 may seem a world away from Seoul in 2026. Yet for Korean audiences who came of age amid relentless academic competition, the pressures driving "Dead Poets Society" need no translation.

The first officially licensed stage production of Tom Schulman's Oscar-winning 1989 screenplay opened this month in Seoul, arriving as questions over what good education should look like cut deeper than ever.

At a press call held Tuesday at NOL Theater Daehangno Woori Card Hall in Jongno District, central Seoul, director Cho Kwang-hwa was careful not to frame the production as a critique of Korean schooling.

"I did not set out to make a statement about the reality of education in Korea," Cho said. "There are teachers at school, but there are also bosses at work and seniors in the military. This is a universal story about the relationships everyone encounters in life, and about the mentors whose words take on deeper meaning as time passes."

Cast members of the play "Dead Poets Society" perform a scene during a press call at NOL Theater Daehangno Woori Card Hall in Jongno District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Yet the questions the play raises land squarely in Korea. Set at the elite Welton Academy, the story follows new English teacher John Keating, who urges students groomed for entrance exams and prestigious careers to "seize the day."

Actors Nam Kyung-eup and Park Ji-il alternate as headmaster Nolan and Neil Perry's father, the twin faces of institutional pressure.

"Both men believe they are acting out of love for the students, but they judge and suppress within the boundaries of their own values," Park said. "In designing lives around the success society demands, the human being goes missing."

Cast members of the play "Dead Poets Society" perform a scene during a press call at NOL Theater Daehangno Woori Card Hall in Jongno District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Keating is played in rotation by three actors, each bringing what they described as a distinctly different teacher to the stage. For actor Cha In-pyo, 59, the production marks his first play in a 34-year career.

"Keating in the original is in his 30s. I have lived the decades he never got to live, and through that experience I learned his words were right," Cha said. "Life is a beautiful poem each of us writes. Rather than a teacher instructing students, I try to see them as colleagues living alongside me."

Oh Man-seok's connection to the material is personal. Some 30 years ago, his parents fiercely opposed his pursuit of acting, so he secretly saved part-time wages to pay for lessons. His instructor then was Nam, with whom he now shares the stage.

"Rather than giving me answers, he threw good questions at me, and those questions made me who I am," Oh said. "I believe good education is helping people ask good questions and searching for the answers together."

Cast members of the play "Dead Poets Society" perform a scene during a press call at NOL Theater Daehangno Woori Card Hall in Jongno District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Yeon Jung-hoon, making his stage debut 28 years after entering the industry, offered his own reading of the play's famous Latin motto.

"Carpe diem is not what people call YOLO," he said. "Looking back, we regret how much we agonized. Living fully in the present, whatever the situation, is carpe diem."

Cha added that seizing the day ultimately means "letting go of what you are already clutching."

"Dead Poets Society" runs through Sept. 13 at NOL Theater Daehangno Woori Card Hall.