In Venus of Dublin Marianne Ackerman has spun a spellbinding tale about an actor, a painter and their muse. The play was inspired by a famous portrait of the actor Edmund Kean that hangs in London's Garrick Club. In it, Kean is depicted as a Huron prince, Alanienouidet, wearing a costume which the chiefs of a small community near Quebec City gave him when he visited in 1826. The chiefs, who were impressed by Kean's performance of Shakespeare, took him on what became known as Kean's lost weekend in the wilderness. Five years later, while on tour in Dublin, the once-great, untamable stage performer Edmund Kean hires a local renegade to paint his portrait. As Kean relives his encounters with the Huron of Quebec, the spirits of the wilderness inhabit him and unleash a mystical and surprising portrait of desire. What results is an entirely unexpected rendering of the artist. Venus of Dublin is a poignant tale about the personal cost and public inspiration of an artist's quest for immortality.

The play premiered at Montreal's Centaur Theatre in April, 2000.