• View Cart
  • $16.95

    ISBN: 9781772012156 | Paperback

    112 pages | Pub. Date: 20180831
    5.5 W × 8.5 H × .75 D inches
    Backlist | Drama | Bisac: DRA013000
    Rights: WORLD

    Or find 1 Hour Photo in your local bookstore

From the award-winning Canadian playwright, performer, and radio broadcaster Tetsuro Shigematsu comes 1 Hour Photo, the follow-up to his acclaimed one-man play Empire of the Son, which was nominated for six Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. Shigematsu’s outstanding new play, another multifaceted portrayal of a singular figure, tells the story of Mas Yamamoto, a man whose life was swept up by the major currents of the twentieth century:

“The year is 1977, the place planet Earth, and even though some of you were not yet born, believe me when I say it was very cool time in which to be alive … Some of the things you know and love today were just being introduced. A movie named Star Wars came out. The U.S. Department of Defense launched a series of satellites you know as GPS. 1977 was the year the Apple II went on sale. You wouldn’t have wanted the Apple I. It was made of wood. Seriously! … But for my money, the coolest thing to launch in 1977 was one of the very first digital cameras. It was the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, if you can believe it, but here’s the cool thing: they called it Voyager.”

From growing up in a fishing village on the banks of the Fraser River in British Columbia, to being confined at a Japanese Canadian internment camp during the Second World War, to helping build the Distant Early Warning Line in the Canadian Arctic during the height of the Cold War, 1 Hour Photo’s Mas Yamamoto is a grand theatrical persona, his life saturated with the most vivid colours of our times.

Cast of 2 men.

Short-listed 2019 Governor General's Award for Drama

Winner 2018 Jessie Richardson Award for Significant Artistic Achievement - Small Theatre

"1 Hour Photo is a powerful piece of writing that insists that the complex history of Canada, including the wrongs imposed on groups of people, must be remembered."
University of Toronto Quarterly

By Tetsuro Shigematsu

Tetsuro Shigematsu is a Canadian playwright, comedian, and radio broadcaster. Originally trained in the fine arts, he found a creative outlet writing for CBC Television’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Then, in 2004, he became the first person of colour to host a daily national radio program in Canada when he took over The Roundup on CBC Radio, for which he co-wrote and co-produced nearly a thousand hours of network programming.

Read more about Tetsuro Shigematsu


news | 2020-11-09
Kuroko has arrived!

…of the award-winning plays Empire of the Son and 1 Hour Photo , comes Kuroko , a story about a family worlds …


news | 2019-10-24
Governor General's Literary Award Nominees now 30% Off!

…pick up your copy of Tetsuro Shigematsu’s 1 Hour Photo , Kevin Loring’s Thanks for Giving , and …


news | 2019-10-02
Governor General's Literary Award Nominations!

…to announce that Tetsuro Shigematsu’s 1 Hour Photo , Kevin Loring’s Thanks for Giving , and … for Governor General’s Literary Awards. 1 Hour Photo and Thanks for Giving have been nominated in …


news | 2018-11-05
Fall Drama Has Arrived: 1 Hour Photo and Thanks for Giving!

…and radio broadcaster Tetsuro Shigematsu comes 1 Hour Photo . 1 Hour Photo tells the story of Mas Yamamoto, a … Arctic during the height of the Cold War, 1 Hour Photo’s Mas Yamamoto is a grand theatrical persona, his … Pick up your copies of Thanks for Giving and 1 Hour Photo today! …


news | 2018-07-17
Talonbooks authors win Jessie Awards

…for the purpose of historical storytelling for 1 Hour Photo , which is coming out with Talon this fall. Niall …