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.