Two plays, linked by more than just the tragedies at the heart of their narratives, are being presented by Company Of Sirens in a unique double bill that draws on the power of film and memory to create a new and complex work.

Twelve Cabins Twelve Vacancies and Souvenirs Of A Killing are two plays by Chris Durnall that were influenced hugely by the films of Alfred Hitchcock. But the influence isn’t the usual artistic borrowing of theme or style. During his father’s fatal illness, Durnall was absorbed by the showing of Psycho on terrestrial TV. The memory of that time is now coloured by Hitchock’s black and white masterpiece, and so too is Twelve Cabins Twelve Vacancies. The tragic events that stimulated Souvenirs Of A Killing – the abduction and death of a friend – will, for Durnall, forever be linked with viewing Vertigo at the local cinema.

The power of art to pervade our memory and tie it to events in our real life is strong and quite beyond our control. In this two-hander, Durnall and Angharad Matthews draw back the curtain of recollection and teeter at the fine edge of reality to question how we remember.

Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Tue 12-Sat 16 Oct. Tickets: £15. Info: 029 2031 1050 / here

words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES