Harry Potter converts to Orthodoxy? Moral realignment in the Russian play The Repentance of Harry Potter

Abstract

I examine the Russian Orthodox play The Repentance of Harry Potter, a transformative rewrite in which Harry renounces magic as evil and defeats Voldemort through Orthodox faith and ritual practice. I situate the work in its 2005 media context and read it as a genre shift toward Christian fantasy and hybrid children's theater, emphasizing motifs like water/fire symbolism, sacralized space, and catechetical performance strategies. More broadly, I argue that the play functions as an Orthodox answer to Western popular culture, reframing J. K. Rowling's universe as moral instruction and making Harry a familiar, "our own" Orthodox figure within Russian cultural discourse.