Half Life September 20, 2006

Whoever's spent some time wandering around the concrete shopping centres, tube stations, underpasses and old library buildings all over the Balkans would have been struck by the number of computer centres and internet cafes to be found. In them, all day and all night, youths in designer clothes are busy playing violent interactive video games with loud music playing in the background. "What's there else to do?" asks one of the characters in Filip Vujosevic's play 'Half Life'.' This is the reality, or rather the virtual reality, experienced by many young people in the Balkans: they live with their parents, are unemployed and without any real prospect of getting a job. They are in Europe , with satellite TVs, Champions League, mobile phones and all the global imagery of success in the 21st century. Half Life follows Bole, Crooks and Killer Belgrade as they prepare for the Counter Strike competition.