When viewed through the lens of performance theory, communities have always appeared temporal. Such a processual view is reflected in concepts such as the 'theatrical community' or the 'aesthetic community', which have been negotiated in the arts and humanities since the 1990s. However, according to the argument of this Insight, such communities have a strong tendency towards the here and now (of performance). They certainly draw on memories, feelings and objects from the past, but these are then subject to a kind of re-presentation. Other forms of temporalisation come into view when communities extend on the scale of 'deep time'.