A Thousand Circlets at Detroit Repertory Theatre

Earl Leighton, the family patriarch, an African American architect, self-made, proud, on the verge of realizing his life's ambition: to build a skyscraper. His family is gathering in anticipation of the big presentation to come. Caleb, his eldest son, a CFO in his father's architecture firm, Rebecca, his daughter, a journalist, a wanderer and Grey, his stepson, an architect at a small firm in New York. Liz, Earl's second wife of twenty years, a retired literature professor runs an efficient household among the trappings of wealth.

When Earl forgets how to tie his tie we realize foreboding ripples threaten the seemingly smooth waters.