Bare Ruined Choirs is a play written by playwright Barton Fink in the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink (1991). We only see the last scene of the play being performed from offstage during the opening of the film. In the play, Fink tells a story of the “common man,” namely of fishmongers in the city. The play serves to introduce Fink as a writer in pursuit of the creation of theatre “of, about, and for the common man,” and the contents of the play have little to do with the film’s plot. The success of the play in New York City is presumed to be the cause for Capitol Pictures to offer Fink a position as a writer in Hollywood for the company.

The title of the play is likely taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, which contains the phrase “bare ruin’d choirs” in its third line. The sonnet is generally interpreted as the poet’s thoughts on his own mortality.-- James Larson