How hard is it for individuals to acknowledge their sins and learn to love the sinner? Writer and performer Imogen Stirling’s show, developed with director Matthew Lenton’s Vanishing Point from a spoken-word poem cycle, isn’t afraid to get into the painful weeds of guilt and self-recrimination. A touring co-production with Beacon Arts Centre and Shetland Arts, this verbally dynamic, sharply scripted, 70-minute production sees Stirling take to the mic (accompanied by Sarah Carton’s music, performed and sung by electronic artist Sonia Killmann).

Spitting out a rebarbative diatribe lacerating the foibles of modern existence, Stirling depicts the seven deadly sins as people, starting with Sloth, and connects them to easily recognisable behaviour: characters endlessly re-watching Friends, seeking validation on social media, existing under the chemical cosh of alcohol and drugs, suffering from casual relationships and steeped in remorse. Killmann’s dreamy playing and collaboration assists Stirling’s strident vocals, finding nuance in material that bites, but tends towards the negative; there’s a regrettable Russell Brand name-check, one of a few references which don’t quite land.

It’s something of an achievement that, after an evocation of Wrath focused on bitter self-deception, Stirling is able to bring her polemic to a positive conclusion. That tricky switch from despondency to epiphany feels unexpected, and Love The Sinner could show more working to justify an upbeat, rallying-cry conclusion. How to find beauty in transgression is the question, and Love The Sinner’s admirable energy and laser focus offer a stimulating answer to an eternal conundrum.

Love The Sinner, Dundee Rep, Wednesday 9 October; reviewed at Paisley Arts Centre.