You all know the story.

Cinderella can’t get a break. She dreams of love, of a life where she will be treated the way she deserves, maybe a big house where she isn't forced to be the servant for her selfish, unloving family.

Then some magic happens - a fairy godmother, a pumpkin, glass slippers, a prince. And it’s a one-way-ticket to Happily Ever After.

Well . . . times have changed, and in the capably revisionist hands of The Imaginists Theater Collective, Cinderella has been transformed into a dark, moody fable where the magic is in the inventive staging, where the inherent downbeat tone of the tale is almost a character unto itself.

In "Crumbs: A Cinderella Story," here’s our heroine as an exhausted, terrified, beaten-down member of the 99%, working her fingers to the bone to provide luxuries for her spoiled step-sisters, who love to get things they clearly don’t need, or even much want.

Cinderella and her animal friends, required to work day and night sewing and baking, must live off the crumbs left over from her sisters daily servings of birthday cake.

Having earlier this year turned Euripides "The Trojan Women" into a heartrending meditation on the endless cycle of war in the world, The Imaginists now unleash a modern fable for the post-Occupy age.

"Crumbs" was developed by the actors through a process of improvisation and experiment over a two-and-a-half month period, and result, though not tightly written or always consistent in its tone, is quite a wonder to behold, inventively and passionately performed, with the twelve-actor ensemble taking turns playing musical accompaniment for the occasional songs - yes, it’s a musical, sort of.

"Crumbs" blends elements of dark-comedy, political satire, and horror story, with frequent flashes of gruesome violence, and breathtaking beauty.

It’s not exactly pleasant, but then, why should it be? This, at its core, is a story of how greed and money turn people into monsters, with even the open-minded characters so locked in their palaces of safety and privilege they can’t recognize the misery right outside their door.

Make no mistake, while "Crumbs" contains plenty of princes and slippers and magic spells, this is no Disney story, the occasional F-bombs and savage cruelty just the tip of the iceberg.

Packed with striking imagery - a tree made of rags, a mountain of cast-off clothes, a butchered goat made of shredded red ribbons - this is definitely more nightmare than fairytale.

But as a powerful, poetic, deeply angry critique of greed and consumerism, it’s quite effective, and thoroughly haunting, a story in which happy endings - if they are possible at all in a world where so many are living on the crumbs tossed away by so few - those happy ending definitely don’t come without a cost.

"Crumbs: A Cinderella Story," runs Thursday through Sunday through December 21. Find out more at the imaginists.org.