About the Play:

Finalist for the 2019 Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)

1 Hour Photo is a full-length drama by Tetsuro Shigematsu. The true story of a Japanese Canadian man's quest to find beauty in the depths of a savage century, as he journeys from finding love in a WWII incarceration camp to rebuilding his life as a scientist, businessman, and father. A heartfelt exploration of a life well-lived, 1 Hour Photo explores the life of Mas Yamamoto inside and beyond internment.

1 Hour Photo originated from hours of recorded interviews at the kitchen table of the man whose life was swept up by the major currents of the 20th century, Mas Yamamoto. What came from the interviews were stories of love, loss, injustice, and triumph. Exploring the Canadian Japanese experience of internment and persecution after Pearl Harbor, 1 Hour Photo depicts the ensuing 80 years, unveiling a long trail of impacts in one family, the Yamamotos, told through the lens of Mas' life; 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 in Lemon Creek and meeting his first love during World War II, to helping build the Distant Early Warning Line in the Canadian Arctic during the height of Cold War, to operating a chain of one-hour photo development shops in Vancouver in the 1980s, 1 Hour Photo describes the fascinating life of a Japanese-Canadian man encountering the worst the 20th century had to throw at him, and somehow prevailing over it all.

1 Hour Photo was first produced in late 2017 by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre at The Cultch in East Vancouver. Since then the play has found its second life with a cinematic adaptation that has been shown across Canada and Internationally.

Cast: 1 male

What people say:

"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

"Superbly written and performed, 1 Hour Photo is a universal story." — Review Vancouver

"I heard people crying …. delivered such an emotional punch." — The Globe and Mail

"1 Hour Photo animates an extraordinary life with vivid props and projections…the play is a buffet of sensory textures." — The Georgia Straight

About the Playwright:

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.