How can this Perl regular expression be expressed in Python?

[John Nagle]

Here's a large Perl regular expression, from a Perl address parser in CPAN:

    use re 'eval';
     $Addr_Match{street} = qr/
         (?:
           # special case for addresses like 100 South Street
           (?:($Addr_Match{direct})\W+           (?{ $_{street} = $^N })
              ($Addr_Match{type})\b              (?{ $_{type}   = $^N }))
           |
           (?:($Addr_Match{direct})\W+		(?{ $_{prefix} = $^N }))?
           (?:
             ([^,]+)				(?{ $_{street} = $^N })
             (?:[^\w,]+($Addr_Match{type})\b	(?{ $_{type}   = $^N }))
             (?:[^\w,]+($Addr_Match{direct})\b	(?{ $_{suffix} = $^N }))?
            |
             ([^,]*\d)				(?{ $_{street} = $^N })
             ($Addr_Match{direct})\b		(?{ $_{suffix} = $^N })
            |
             ([^,]+?)				(?{ $_{street} = $^N })
             (?:[^\w,]+($Addr_Match{type})\b	(?{ $_{type}   = $^N }))?
             (?:[^\w,]+($Addr_Match{direct})\b	(?{ $_{suffix} = $^N }))?
           )
         )
	/ix;

I'm trying to convert this to Python.

Those entries like "$(Addr_Match{direct}) are other regular expressions,
being used here as subexpressions.  Those have already been converted
to forms like "Addr_Match.direct" in Python.  But how to call them?
Is that possible in Python, and if so, where is it documented?

					John Nagle