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In comedy, timing is everything. And the timing couldn’t be better for the Landless Theatre Company’s staging of Life of Brian, based on the 1979 Monty Python film that caused an uproar similar to that swirling around The Passion of the Christ. Landless artistic director Andrew Lloyd Baughman says that most of the script remains unchanged from screen to stage, though he and co-director Chad Allen cleverly updated a few lines. So now Pilate says, “Stwike him, Centuwian—vewy woughwy—wemember the way Mel Gibson taught us!” There’s also a bit of added “American flavor,” in the form of the various social reform groups—Naderites, Deaniacs, and Kerry nationalists—and “W” Caesar. But Baughman has kept the film’s wonderful opening and closing songs (including “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”), and he even promises sendups of the film’s full-frontal nudity and a “brilliantly tacky” alien-abduction animation sequence. Believe and see the (stage) light at 10 p.m. (see City List for other dates) at the District of Columbia Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW. $15. (202) 462-7833. (Dave Nuttycombe)