Synopsis

London, 1995. A seedy pawn shop becomes the nexus of a sprawling, surreal journey across America as a motley crew of misfits, fugitives, and dreamers collide in unexpected ways.

Lester Marjette, a small-time criminal with delusions of political grandeur, finds himself entangled with Martin, a fitness-obsessed gay man harbouring dark impulses. Their paths intertwine with Ava Coo, a struggling female impersonator searching for her big break, and Kate Buck, a disgraced journalist chasing the story of a lifetime. As they careen from Earls Court to Las Vegas, reality bends and fractures. Otto Mink, a mysterious puppet master, pulls strings from the shadows, manipulating destinies with cryptic phone calls and enigmatic instructions.

Nagy’s dialogue crackles with wit and absurdist humour, while her characters grapple with identity, desire, and the elusive American Dream. Through a series of increasingly bizarre encounters—including a surreal detour to an abandoned Liverpool courthouse—the play examines themes of self-delusion, the corrupting influence of fame, and the malleability of truth in a world where appearance is everything. As the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, The Strip asks: in a culture obsessed with reinvention, what remains when all our carefully constructed personas are stripped away?