Stratiev's career as a playwright took off in 1974 with the runaway success of his first play, The Roman Bath, which was performed at the Sofia's Satirical Theatre for more than 10 consecutive seasons to packed halls.

Stratiev's plays have been performed in Belgium, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Syria, the Slovak Republic, Turkey, and others.

His play It's a Short Life (translated in French as La vie bien qu'elle soit courte) won the First Prize at the Maubeuge International Theatre Festival in 1990.

While most popular as a playwright, Stratiev also wrote prose works combining social satire and lyricism, translated into more than 30 languages all over the world.

His film scripts earned him international acclaim too: Equilibrium won a silver medal at the 13th International Film Festival in Moscow in 1983; Childhood Sun won "The Child in Our Time" award at the MIFED in Milan that same year.