Jacques ou la soumission

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Jacques ou la soumission (English translation: Jack, or the Submission) is an absurd play by Eugene Ionesco, the first of two (the second being The Future is in Eggs) about Jacques (Jack in English) and his family, all of whom are named after Jacques (Father-Jacques, Mother Jacques, etc.).

The thrust of the narrative involves Jacques' arranged marriage to Roberta and, when the first Roberta is not satisfactory, Robert II. The play contains nonsensical exchanges and strings of cliches, similar to The Bald Soprano and the sort of surreal conceits (Roberta's multiple noses, for example) common in many of his later plays.