''Jack, or The Submission'' () is an absurdist play by

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...

, the first of two about Jack and his family (the second being '' The Future is in Eggs''), all of whom are named after Jack (Father Jack, Mother Jack, etc.). The thrust of the

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

involves Jack's arranged marriage to Roberta and, when the first Roberta is not satisfactory, Roberta II. The play contains nonsensical exchanges and strings of clichés, similar to ''

The Bald Soprano ''La Cantatrice chauve '' – translated from French as ''The Bald Soprano'' or ''The Bald Prima Donna'' – is the first play written by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco. Nicolas Bataille directed the premiere on 11 May 1950 at th ...

'', and the sort of surreal conceits (Roberta's multiple noses, for example) common in many of Ionesco's later plays.

References

* Allen, Donald M., trans. 1958. ''The Bald Soprano and Other Plays: The Bald Soprano; The Lesson; Jack, or The Submission; The Chairs''. By

. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1982. . Plays by Eugène Ionesco 1955 plays Theatre of the Absurd One-act plays {{1950s-play-stub