Variables within wp_nav_menu

wp_nav_menu() is irrelevant here. An Array is an Array regardless. But no, this won’t work. It will result in array that looks like this:

array(
    'theme_location'  => 'right',
    array(
        'container' => false,
        'menu_class' => false,
        'items_wrap' => '%3$s' // Removes <ul> and wraps <li>
    ),
)

To get the values in a single array you need to merge the arrays with array_merge():

// Left
$menu = array('container' => false, 'menu_class' => false, 'items_wrap' => '%3$s');
wp_nav_menu( array_merge( 
    array( 'theme_location'  => 'left' ),
    $menu
) );
// Right
wp_nav_menu( array_merge( 
    array( 'theme_location'  => 'right' ),
    $menu
) );