By Funky Little Theater Company, 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, through Nov. 7, Funky Little Theater Company, 2109 Templeton Gap Road, $15, $11 Thursdays; 425-9509, funky littletheater.org.

You’ll never look at another “Peanuts” comic strip the same after “Dog Sees God.”

In the unauthorized parody, playwright Bert V. Royal reinvents Charles Schulz’s beloved characters as high school students dealing with sexual identity, suicide, drug use, eating disorders and sexual abuse.

The play opens Friday at Funky Little Theater Company.

“I’ve been calling it a dark comedy or a black comedy for sure,” says director Chris Medina, founder of the theater company. “It deals with some serious things, but then, it is ‘Peanuts.’ There’s still some funny pieces in there. It’s more tongue in cheek.”

“Dog Sees God” premiered at the 2004 New York Fringe Festival. Medina, who starred in the show in college, calls it haunting.

“They’ve been turned into something real,” he says about the characters. “Everybody knows somebody like somebody in the play. Peppermint Patty and Marcie turn into promiscuous party girls. Linus turned into a stoner. Sally Brown goes from being a goth chick to punk rock to drama geek to figure out who she is because everyone around her is so set in their ways.”

At the heart of the play is a timely issue – bullying. The characters struggle to embrace their authentic selves in the face of mob mentality.

“It’s definitely about coming to terms with yourself and your sexuality and the people you surround yourself with,” Medina says. “That’s what you deal with in high school.”

JENNIFER MULSON, THE GAZETTE, 636-0270, JEN.MULSON@GAZETTE.COM