Paris Takopoulos

Paris Takopoulos is better known as the author of "The Empty Testament" and its second volume, "Inquiry to the Nations," rather than as a theater critic. Despite never ceasing to write reviews since early childhood, with only a few breaks during times of natural disasters when he preferred to embrace silence, his critical notes—except those that saw the light during the occupation in his own handwritten resistance magazines, written in times of blackout—were published in Spyros Melas' "Greek Creation" in 1949, under the pseudonymous initials P.O.T., as reports on all things artistic in London. His first two theater reviews were published in Eleni Vlachou's new "Eklogi." After the second review, there was no third. Despite his critical talent not being sufficiently appreciated, he continued to be published by Ikaros, both poetically and novelistically ("Kleinos Asty" and "Apostates") until the year '66, which was particularly significant for him. That year, he collaborated with the reissued "New Greek" by Heracles and Renos Apostolidis, to continue his critical work uninterrupted for an entire year. These regular reviews did not significantly increase his popularity in the theater world, perhaps because they were more irritating than his explosive laughter. In 1974, he took his revenge on Eleni Vlachou when she entrusted him with the artistic direction of Kathimerini. This collaboration was also rather brief, lasting only as long as the carte blanche mandate (Cherchez les femmes). Since then, he has been writing incessantly, one might say obsessively, in the intervals allowed by his metrical or prose "Empty Testaments," attacking all bad translations, which admittedly outnumber his "bad" reviews. This was followed by "Critiques" in 2002, covering his reviews up to 1990. "Critiques" was succeeded by the two volumes of his "Theatricals" from Ellinika Grammata. Meanwhile, Paris Takopoulos continued writing his fiftieth theatrical work and the "Apocryphal Second Inquiry," the third volume of his "Empty Testament," which would precede the forthcoming fourth. The rest is again criticism, perhaps because he does not intend, like Seferis, to embrace silence once more