Meritorious Artist Duc Lam – An impressive artist known for his villainous roles.
The musical drama "Drowning in the Whirlpool," currently being performed by the Nghe An Traditional Arts Center at the 2025 National Traditional Opera and Folk Song Festival, has attracted significant attention from both audiences and experts. This is not only due to its profound and topical script, but also to its talented cast, especially Meritorious Artist Duc Lam – considered the "artist of villainous roles" – who always knows how to make his characters come alive, realistic, and full of inner strength.
Timeless villains
In the play "Drowning in the Whirlpool," Duc Lam plays Hai, a successful business executive who appears sophisticated on the outside but is actually cunning and manipulative on the inside. The role is considered "right up his alley," as every gesture, action, and line is sharp and distinctive. Hai is a typical "fox" in the market economy – understanding people's hearts and exploiting their weaknesses to achieve his goals. Under Hai's influence, those who seemed secure are gradually drawn into the trap of power and money.
In every scene, from his gaze and smile to his sweet yet venomous lines, Duc Lam captivated the audience, making them both hate him and unable to look away. He acted so "sweetly" that after each scene, applause erupted as a recognition from the audience for his refined and experienced acting style.
“I don’t try to act like a certain director, nor do I try to play a cunning character. Once I’ve absorbed the script, I let the character have its own life, not conforming to anyone else. Hai could be anyone in today’s life – where money often becomes a mirror reflecting people’s character,” Duc Lam shared. For him, playing a villain isn’t about “playing evil,” but about revealing the hidden, the deeper aspects of a person’s character. Each role is a challenge, because the audience always wants to see something new from him – something different, sharper, and more authentic.
Previously, Duc Lam made a strong impression with his role as the Chinese boss in the play "The Sinful Commodity" – a work about combating human trafficking. Initially, the character appeared gentle and kind; but as the story progressed, his face gradually revealed cruelty and cunning.
The sinister laughter, the furrowed brows, the fleeting changes in expression sent shivers down the audience's spines. Following the laughter came the haunting image of the brutality of the human traffickers – "foxes in human disguise" – portrayed by Duc Lam with a performance that was both realistic and fierce.
People's Artist Minh Tuệ, a veteran actor of the Provincial Traditional Arts Center, commented: "Đức Lam is an actor with rare versatility. He can play leading roles, supporting roles, tragic or comedic roles perfectly. Lam has a serious and creative work ethic, focusing absolutely on each role. He doesn't act according to a script, but lets the character speak for itself on stage."
From a young boy who loved cải lương (Vietnamese traditional opera) to a veteran artist of folk theater.
Meritorious Artist Duc Lam was born in 1969 in a poor rural area of the former Do Luong district. His childhood was filled with moonlit nights listening to traditional Vietnamese folk songs and sneaking away with his older sister to watch traveling opera troupes come to the village. His God-given voice and passion for art allowed young Duc Lam to quickly memorize excerpts, inflections, pauses, and dialogues of the characters on stage.
During his high school years, Lam became a well-known performing artist in his local area. His singing voice caught the attention of musician Quoc Nam, who was then working at the Bong Sen Trang Nghe Tinh Cai Luong (traditional Vietnamese opera) Troupe. It was Quoc Nam who first recruited Duc Lam into the troupe, opening the door to a professional artistic career for him. Sent for training at the Provincial School of Culture and Arts, Duc Lam quickly demonstrated his talent and stage presence. Initially, he was only given supporting roles, but each appearance left a lasting impression with his wit, liveliness, and naturalness.
Once, during a setback for the troupe, the director unexpectedly assigned Lam the lead role. The director was extremely surprised to find that he had memorized all the lines without ever having been given the script for this character. Later, he revealed that even without being assigned the role, he had a habit of memorizing all the lines and scenes of the characters in the play. That role helped him shine, and the troupe's leaders and the audience saw a new theatrical talent, possessing both "voice and appearance." From then on, Duc Lam became the "ace" of the White Lotus Troupe, loved by audiences everywhere. Large audiences and cheers whenever he walked through a crowd were common sights back then for Duc Lam and his contemporaries.
“Back then, wherever Duc Lam went, he was surrounded by fans asking for autographs. Some people called him 'Oh, King!', 'Oh, Prince Consort!' – after the names of the characters he played. Duc Lam lived in the role, and the audience lived with him,” recalled Meritorious Artist Minh Thanh, Duc Lam's wife and fellow actor.
Keeping the passion for the profession alive amidst change.
In 2000, when the performing arts troupes merged, the provincial stage faced a difficult period. Many artists of Cai Luong, Cheo, and folk music were left adrift in the changing times. Duc Lam also had to leave the stage, working as an aluminum and glass worker and running a small business to make a living. But his longing for the profession never faded. It was the leaders of the Nghe Tinh Folk Music Troupe at that time who invited him back, something he had longed for immensely. Initially, Duc Lam was unfamiliar with the intonation and rhythm of folk music, but he quickly adapted and gained the trust of the troupe's leaders. With passion and perseverance, the characters he was assigned were quickly and warmly received by the audience, and the troupe's leaders therefore trusted him even more with many roles. "From being unfamiliar, after a while I learned to 'release the four-part melody' smoothly, to take breaths, and to place lines at the right moments. Every time I played a role, I felt the audience applauding not only because of the character but because they believed they were living alongside them," Duc Lam recalled.
Since then, he has been one of the actors who have helped the troupe continuously win medals at national professional theater festivals. He himself has won 2 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals, and numerous awards at the industry level.
In 2019, Duc Lam was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist by the State – a well-deserved recognition for his more than three decades of dedication to the arts.
After thousands of performances, big and small, experiencing all the joys, sorrows, loves, and hates on stage, Duc Lam has come to appreciate the value of his profession even more. He believes that the stage only truly comes alive when it touches contemporary life, when the performer knows how to "speak with the heart of the character and with the breath of the times."
"While in previous decades audiences preferred abstract, bookish characters, today they want to see real people and real emotions recreated on stage. Therefore, artists must find ways for characters to speak the voice of today, so that the stage is not only brightly lit but also appealing to audiences of all backgrounds."
Meritorious Artist Duc Lam
Now, even without packed concerts or long queues for tickets, for Duc Lam, the stage remains a dazzling beacon of glory for artists like him. He continues to practice diligently, maintaining his performance in every role, as if each time he steps onto the stage is like "living another life."
With over 30 years in the profession, Meritorious Artist Duc Lam is still remembered as a formidable leading actor of the Nghe An folk theater – a man who transformed villainous roles into glimpses of life, making audiences understand that art is not only a reflection of reality, but also a way to illuminate humanity.
