The correct active voice of the sentence The villain of the play was hated by the audience is The audience hated the villain of the play.

The active voice of the sentence is The villain of the play was hated by the audience. This sentence is in the passive voice, which means that the subject of the sentence is the one being acted upon. The active voice of the sentence reverses the order of the subject and verb, and puts the subject of the passive voice in the verb phrase. In this case, the subject of the passive voice is "the villain of the play" and the verb is "was hated." The active voice of the sentence is The audience hated the villain of the play.

The other options are incorrect because:

• The villain hated the audience of the play. is in the active voice, but the subject of the sentence is incorrect. The villain is not the one who is doing the hating.
• The audience had hated the villain of the play. is in the past perfect tense, which is used to describe an action that happened in the past before another action happened. There is no other action mentioned in the sentence, so the past perfect tense is not appropriate.
• The audience was hating the villain of the play. is in the past progressive tense, which is used to describe an action that was happening in the past but was not finished. The sentence is describing an action that happened in the past, so the past progressive tense is not appropriate.