Performed in front of free-male-only audiences, Athenian plays served public and private purposes simultaneously. For Athenian citizens, and some privileged Greek foreigners living in Athens, attendance at the theater--a public amenity sponsored by the wealthy--represented a key opportunity for alcohol-lubricated social bonding in public. On the other hand, the experience remained disassociated from daily life: All-male casts invariably wore masks and long robes to hide their body shapes and, when they played male roles, strap-on phalluses. Performances focused on annunciation, choral accompaniment, and occasional visual spectacles rather than any semblance of genuine, deep emotion. Plays brought people together in social settings but, at the same time, offered a spectacle that contained social criticism by means of disconnection from ordinary experience