Bertolt Brecht is up to his old tricks on the stage at Southern Oregon University, defending the poor, confounding the establishment and writing his own rules for how society and the arts ought to interact.

SOU’s Department of Theatre Arts is presenting Brecht’s "The Threepenny Opera," the second-longest running musical in New York theater history. At nearly three hours of Brechtian polemical excesses, it’s long, all right.

The whole idea is to set up the cast as good, honest people of the earth. Hardworking, downtrodden folks who have found their champion — and mouthpiece — in Brecht. They are going to put on a play for us. A play for the poor by the poor.

Craig Hudson has created a magnificent set, perhaps too magnificent if we are to believe it has been crafted by the members of this poor opera company. We see the actors preparing the stage. We see the ropes and pulleys and the person hoisting up the sets. There is even a street singer who serves as a narrator of sorts.

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Under Dennis Smith’s direction, the SOU cast did a fine job singing and acting their way through the back streets of 1837 London, convincing accents and all. Luci Bedell has a wonderful voice that held the audience in thrall just as much as it did Macheath’s henchmen when she sang of "Pirate Jenny." And the four henchmen — very, very funny, but just this side of silly so as not to go over the top.

As Macheath, Sean Kelly gave us the perfect slow-burning gentleman bandit, cursed to be surrounded by idiots. And the people of the streets — the "ever-honorable" scoundrels the Peachums, the "ladies" of the night, the constables, the beggars, the warden and his daughter — what a world. Queen Victoria, who is about to be coronated in London during the play’s proceedings, is the nominal leader of all these people. But the truth seems to be that the one person who has a more direct influence on everyone’s lives is the violent and apparently heartless criminal Macheath. What a world indeed.

Given that Brecht’s source material for this play was a satire by John Gay, and given that we are watching a "play within a play" with a deliberately ridiculous "happy ending" tacked on, it would be interesting to see how this director and cast might have presented a more playful treatment of the material. Broader characters. Less representational staging, costuming and blocking. This is tricky and can easily sink a production, but it does help to alleviate the tedium of the moral messages in the songs, which reminded me of the worst moments of the political rallies from my college days in the ’60s.

The play was written in 1928. Brecht had just become acquainted with the heady ideas of Marx. The play is typical Brecht, even though it predates his more fully developed ideas about theater and society. It is not, however, your typical musical as it predates most of what people today mean when they use the word "musical." It is more like a play with music. It is really more like a political statement disguised as a play with some songs added to further emphasize the political point.

This may be why the songs weren’t listed in the program. Most of them aren’t particularly remarkable as songs go. Some of the lyrics are clever, some are acerbic and are remarkable for that: Better to have a man dead on his back than alive and on his knees; better to rob a bank than to have corporations and banks robbing you.

People who like their theater to be more political love this touch and would agree with Macheath who says, "That’s not nice! That’s Art, and Art is not nice!"

Then there are those who subscribe to the notion that it doesn’t matter what your play is about — but whatever it is, don’t tell me, show me. But Brecht likes to tell you. He likes to tell you a lot. But I learned more about Macheath in Bobby Darin’s three-minute song "Mack the Knife" than I did in Brecht’s entire play.

"Threepenny Opera" is an important part of theater history. It needs to be seen and appreciated for its contributions to that history. And if you’re going to see it, see a good performance of it. SOU is doing an excellent one right now until Feb. 19. Call 552-6348.

Reach Arts and Entertainment Editor Richard Moeschl at 776-4486 or email at rmoeschl @mailtribune.com