'Dead Poets Society' brings question of good education to Seoul stage

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." Yet the questions the play raises land squarely in Korea.

Set at the elite Welton Academy, the story follows new English ...