Background: Student role-play is a commonly utilized practice in medical ethics education. Because of various limitations, the benefits of role-play have not been fully realized. An interactive forum theater exhibits a unique design that may compensate for the drawbacks of role-play and provide opportunities to achieve the goals of ethics education. This study explored the application of participatory forum theater in a bioethics course and evaluated its effectiveness from different perspectives. Methods: Forty-seven second-year medical students who had taken a compulsory bioethics course participated in this study. Four bioethics clinical vignettes were predesigned by the research team. The forum theater program was conducted by four drama experts and the course instructors; this program had a total duration of 8 weeks, with 2 weeks (4 hours) for each vignette. The quantitative measurements were the interpersonal reactivity index, an ethics knowledge questionnaire, and a final-term evaluation. The qualitative data were collected through in-class observation, after-class review meetings, and student reflection reports. Research data were collected at the beginning, middle, and end of this program. Results: Compared with the initial measurements, a significant increase was observed in student feelings of satisfaction and perceived benefits with regard to this program as well as ethical knowledge at the end of the course. Five items from IRI also demonstrated a significant difference. A qualitative analysis revealed the complex phenomenon of conducting this interactive theater, the difficulties encountered, and suggestions for future applications, both from the perspectives of faculty and students.