On the crossroads between philosophy of history and theatre studies, I look at ways in which performances reflect on and experiment with historicist notions of time and history. The starting point of this research is a dialectical approach to history which was initiated by Walter Benjamin and further developed by, among others, George Didi-Huberman, Susan Buck-Morss, Jacques Rancière or Claire Bishop. In this theoretical corpus, history unlocks the past’s potential as a dynamic, active and even activist force that moves the present, undermining traditional notions of historicity and a chronologically ordered temporality. At stake in my research is therefore the idea of a “performative history”, i.e. ways in which trough performance and in the performing arts historical events are made to ‘perform’ in the present despite there historical anchoring in another time. Some of the topcis I am focussing on are: the use of 'performative anachronism' and the return to and of the uprising of the Paris Commune; different practical and discursive approaches to 'contemporaneity' in the performing arts; the dialogue between the performing arts and the museum.