Joe Ironstone: A Drama for Radio

Shannon Hengen is an associate professor of English at Laurentian
University and the author of Margaret Atwood’s Power: Mirrors,
Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry.

This radio drama evokes a more innocent time in the history of
Canada’s favorite sport.

On March 3, 1928, Joe Ironstone of Sudbury, Ontario, was called up from
the Can Pro League to play goal for the newly renamed Toronto Maple
Leafs. In three short acts, Joe Ironstone chronicles the events of that
day: the team practice, Joe’s reunion with his brothers, and his
response to what turned out to be a “perfect” game.

The attitudes of players, managers, fans, family, and the press are
well articulated in this terse and effective drama, even though
individual voices are not clearly distinguishable. Joe and his teammates
are depicted as thoughtful human beings, as athletes not yet bloated to
the size of media superstars. Joe Ironstone offers a timely view of how
the sport of hockey, with better guidance, might have evolved.