Question

Highlight the stage directions.

EUGENE (To the audience) Can you believe that? She'd better have a bad heart or I'm going to kill her one day . . . (He gets up to walk into the house, then stops on the porch steps and turns to the audience again . . . confidentially) Listen, I hope you don't repeat this to anybody . . .

—Brighton Beach Memoirs,
Neil Simon

What do the stage directions help the reader understand?

Eugene wants to share a secret with the audience.
Eugene wants the audience to sympathize with him.
Eugene is trying to get applause from the audience.
Eugene wants the audience to dislike another character.

Answer 1

Stage directions in Neil Simon's 'Brighton Beach Memoirs' show that Eugene wants to share a secret with the audience, suggesting a confidential interaction.

Step-by-step explanation:

The stage directions provide vital information in a play about the characters' actions, movements, and emotions that isn't conveyed through dialogue alone. Given the excerpt from Neil Simon's 'Brighton Beach Memoirs', we can see that the stage directions such as '(To the audience)' and '(He gets up to walk into the house, then stops on the porch steps and turns to the audience again... confidentially)' are used to guide how Eugene interacts with the audience, thus shaping the overall performance. These stage directions help the reader understand that Eugene wants to share a secret with the audience, engaging them in a confidential manner which builds a connection between the character and the audience.